Science and Innovation

The Catalan Association of Scientific Communication (ACCC) presented the Science Disclosure Awards last November at an event that brought together some fifty people at the Vil-la Urània civic centre in the Gràcia neighbourhood. The purpose of these awards is to promote scientific culture in Catalan and to give value to projects focused on the popularisation of science in the country. In this second edition, special value has been given to creativity in terms of formats and innovative dynamics when communicating and disseminating science.

From among the 25 proposals received, the jury, made up of members of the ACCC Board and other external science communication professionals, awarded a first prize and two runners-up prizes. The winner was Aperitius de ciència, a project that promotes science communication through coasters. Its aim is to encourage conversations thanks to the eye-catching design of these objects. The discussions that can be generated on bar terraces, the default socialising site, make this project a perfect proposal to cause scientific concern in an environment in which it is apparently not usual to deal with topics in this field. It has been awarded for its originality in communicating science in a simple and practical way and for the fact that it encourages debate on everyday scientific issues with rigour. 

The first runner-up prize went to Genigma, the first Catalan citizen science project to accelerate cancer research with a video game. This groundbreaking proposal has enabled more than 39,000 people to collectively analyse the entire genome of breast cancer cells in just twenty weeks. Using mobile devices, a community of 154 countries identified 181 genomic regions of great scientific interest. Thanks to this work, and the involvement of citizens in research while spreading the word, scientific teams around the world will be able to create better tools to study cancer in the lab. This can accelerate the development of new personalised therapies and facilitate diagnostic improvements, for which the project has been awarded. 

The second runner-up prize went to the initiative Discover Volcanoes: Join the Volkis on their volcanic adventure. This proposal is based on an illustrated book in digital format for the dissemination of geology among the youngest (and not so young) members of the household. In a clear and entertaining way, through illustrations and simple explanations, the main concepts about volcanoes are explained: What is the interior of the Earth like? Where and why do we have volcanoes? What is a volcano like on the inside? These questions and many more about the situation of volcanoes on our planet and others in the solar system are answered through the characters in the story. This book, which combines illustration and science, is also intended as a support for teachers and schools. The illustrations and texts have been developed following a strict scientific rigour to obtain a high quality final product. This project has received a runner-up prize for the quality of its contents and designs for such a demanding public as children and young people, sometimes forgotten, which here becomes the protagonist.