The Catalan Government gives out 30 of these awards every year to reward research excellence in the Catalan university system. To receive the award, individuals must have spent at least five years primarily engaged in research activities at a Catalan public university. Marsal is head of the Nanoelectronic and Photonic Systems research group (NePhoS) at the URV’s Department Of Electronic, Electrical and Automatic Engineering

On 1 July, the councillor for Economy and Knowledge, Andreu Mas-Colell, gave out the 2014 ICREA Acadèmia awards to 30 researchers from the Catalan university system. Mas-Colell was accompanied by the Secretary for Universities and Research, Antoni Castellà, and by the director of the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Jaume Bertranpetit. This is the seventh time that the ICREA Acadèmia awards have been handed out and their purpose is to recognise the research work carried out by members of the teaching and research staff at the Catalan public universities.

One of the 30 recipients of the 2014 prizes is the URV’s Lluís Marsal, head of the Nanoelectronic and Photonic Systems research group at the Department of Electronic, Electrical and Automatic Engineering, which he also headed for 8 years. He joined the URV’s Department of Electronic, Electrical and Automatic Engineering in 1994 and in 2009 he obtained the position of full university professor at the URV. His research interests are nanophotonics, biosensors, biomaterials and optoelectronic devices based on micronanoporous hybrid materials.

Recipients of the ICREA Acadèmia award each receive 40,000 euros a year for five years. These awards are aimed at university professors who engage in teaching and who are actively expanding their research activities.

The latest round of awards takes the number of ICREA Acadèmia prize holders at the Catalan universities to 164. The programme receives €6 million euros of funding from the Catalan Government and, including the most recent awardee, the number of URV professors to receive an award now totals thirteen, these being Joan Maria Thomàs, Jordi Miró, Benjamí Iníguez and Josep Domingo in 2013 (the latter two also received the prize in 2008); Eduard Llobet and Marta Sales-Pardo in 2012; Àlex Arenas in 2011; Francesc Díaz, Òscar Pàmies and Anthony Pym in 2010, and Francesc Medina and Montserrat Diéguez in 2009.

During the ceremony Mr Mas Colell announced that the competition for the 2015 awards will open on 3 September. Also, Ms Bertranpetit announced that he would be stepping down as head of ICREA.