The seven winners of the King James I Awards, which reward scientific research and entrepreneurship, said on Tuesday, during the presentation of this year’s awards, chaired by Felipe VI in Valencia, that investing in science “is not a luxury but a necessity” for society, Valencian researcher and award winner María Jesús Vicent Docón said on behalf of all. At the end of the event, Philip VI warned of a geopolitical situation “little inclined towards scientific exchange and cooperation, which could discourage vocations or discourage support”. Vicente Boluda, president of the awards foundation, called for 3% of GDP to be invested in research, development and innovation by 2030 and regretted the lack of coordination of public administrations for reconstruction after the damage.
The King had a double program this Tuesday in Valencia. At ten in the morning he presided over the state opening ceremony of the 2025-2026 academic year of Spanish universities in the Auditorium of the University of Valencia, which was supposed to take place on September 30 but was postponed due to the red rain alert activated that day. And at midday he presided, as every year, at the presentation of the King James I prizes at the Lonja de los Mercaderes, one of the highest paid prizes in Spain.
The interim president of the Generalitat, Carlos Mazón, did not participate in either event. Yes, he was accompanied by the Government delegate, Pilar Bernabé, the Minister of Science, Innovation and University, Diana Morant, and the first vice-president of the Generalitat, Susana Camarero, among other authorities, who did not participate in the speeches today nor was she in the delegation that received the monarch upon arrival at La Lonja. Mazón will face his last days in office as the investiture debate is scheduled for next Thursday in which Juan Francisco Pérez Llorca, also from the PP, will predictably take his place. Since stepping down on November 3, he has barely been seen at official events.
Philip VI dedicated his first words to the reconstruction after the damage and to the people affected by the tragedy. Many Valencians still live with the material and emotional effects of the devastation caused by that damage, he said to remind the victims that “you are very present” and “you have the support of all Spaniards and, of course, that of the Crown.”
The King listed the difficulties that researchers go through (long training, difficult financing and results that are never guaranteed), to which is now added “a geopolitical situation that is not very inclined towards international scientific exchange and cooperation”. For this reason he hoped for an EU “that strives to bridge the innovation gap compared to China and the United States”.
The president of the King James I Awards Foundation, shipowner Vicente Boluda, thanked the royal family for their support during the “very tough” months following the disaster, but also alluded to “an intolerable lack of coordination between administrations, which only aggravates the already profound political disaffection on the part of citizens”.
According to Boluda, in Spain “much progress has been made in investments in research, development and innovation”, but even so today, at the end of 2025, we are at the levels of the European Union average corresponding to 1985″. “We are making enormous efforts, but the rest of the countries are also racing”, said the president of the foundation, calling for investments in research, development and innovation to be increased to 3% of GDP by 2030, double the current level, and for the means to be strengthened “for our researchers and scientists and increase their connection with companies.”
The winners of this year’s edition are José Luis Mascareñas Cid, prize in the Basic Research category; Jan Eeckhout, in Economics; Nuria López-Bigas, in Biomedical Research; Victoria Reyes García, in Environmental Protection; María Jesús Vicent Docón, in New Technologies; Damià Tormo Carulla, in Corporate Revelation; and Silvia de Sanjosé Llongueras, in Clinical Research and Public Health.
In this edition, unlike the previous year in which all the winners were men, there are four winners. On behalf of all of them, María Jesús Vicent Docón, from Valencia, has distinguished herself in New Technologies for her career in nanomedicine and advanced therapies. Vicent defended an “integrative vision of science” to address major challenges such as climate change, pandemics, inequality, the energy transition or the digital revolution, and underlined that investing in science “is not a luxury but a necessity to build a prosperous and inclusive society”.
The Valencian researcher asked society as a whole “not to stop betting on knowledge. To support those who research, those who undertake, those who take risks for a better future”. He asked, at a time when investments in research are not evolving as rapidly as would be desirable, that they “facilitate trajectories, reduce barriers, simplify processes. That they have trust”.
Mayor María José Catalá, as host of the event, welcomed all guests and called for an effort to encourage the emergence of more scientific vocations among female students. He thanked the royal family for their support after “the most difficult times on this earth”, he said in reference to the 2024 dana, and called for an updated southern metropolitan plan for future floods.
Delayed opening of the academic year
Two hours earlier, the King had led the opening of the state academic year of Spanish universities in the historic headquarters of the Universitat de València (UV), accompanied by Minister Diana Morant, the rector of the UV, Mavi Mestre and the president of the CRUE (Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities), Eva Alcón, rector of the Universitat Jaume I.
At the end of the event, Philip VI warned of the “dangerous drift” in the complex situation affecting the world order. “A crisis that coincides with signs of disaffection, in many democratic regimes, towards the fundamental values of coexistence”. The King warned against this drift: “We have, in the history of the 20th century, some indelible examples of where it can lead us.”
In his speech, the monarch set an example for universities “as a counterpoint to resignation and paralysis” and highlighted the Erasmus programme. “Few initiatives have done so much to build Europe’s identity,” he underlined. Furthermore, in reference to the dana of 29 October 2024, we highlight the initiative of the universities of the Valencian Community of the “Save the photos” project to help, together with other cultural institutions, the emotional heritage of thousands of Valencians, the photographs deteriorated by the water in the dana which, if there were not a rapid restoration, would be lost.
