The Full Council unanimously agreed to award the Gold Medal for Scientific Merit 2025 to Josep Tabernero Caturla, the internationally prestigious Catalan doctor and researcher specialising in medical oncology and professor with the Universitat de Vic – Universitat Central de Catalunya.

Proposed by the Department of Science and Innovation, the Gold Medal for Scientific Merit goes to Josep Tabernero Caturla for his pioneering advances in medical oncology and precision oncological medicine, such as the discovery of new mechanisms involved in the development of tumours and the design of more precise and accurate directed therapies against cancer. The award also recognises him for having helped make Barcelona a leading city in the sphere of oncology, thanks to his dedication as the director of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology.

Scientific and institutional scientific leadership renowned the world over

Josep Tabernero Caturla (Barcelona, 1963) is particularly renowned for his contribution to the medicine of cancer. Graduating in Medicine and Surgery with a Special Award in 1987, a doctorate in Medicine and Surgery from the UAB, he is a professor of Medicine with the UAB, the teaching unit at the Hospital Vall d’Hebron, and actively involved in transnational research and in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics with new antineoplastic drugs.

Tabernero is the director of the Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO) and the head of the Medical Oncology Service at the Hospital Vall d’Hebron. He was the chair of the European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) in 2018 and 2019, as well as a member of the Executive Council from 2016 to 2022 and a member of cancer research association such as the AACR, the EACR and the ASCO. He also the chair of Cancer Core Europe and a member of the Executive Council for the Organisation or European Cancer Institutes (OECI).

He has also been a member of the Tumour Committee at the Hospital Vall d’Hebron since it was created (colorectal cancer, gastroesophageal cancer, pancreatic cancer, liver tumours and liver metastasis), and member of the board for the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

Josep Tabernero is also the head of the Unit for Investigation into Molecular Therapy for Cancer (UITM) La Caixa, a pioneering unit in the Spanish state, devoted to carrying out clinical trials for various pharmaceutical products for the treatment of colorectal cancer that are now part of standard treatment. Based on the concept that each tumour has different genetic identity, the research group headed by Tabernero works to develop molecular therapy aimed at specific oncoproteins to achieve personalised treatments.

Besides directing important international trials for new pharmaceuticals to treat digestive tumours, Tabernero is involved in numerous research projects in the European Union which are important in the advance of oncology. He is also the Spanish representative for the Pan-European Trials in Alimentary Tract Cancer (PETACC) on tumour treatment for the European Organisation for Research into the Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). In addition, he is the co-founder of the Spanish Group for the Treatment of Digestive Tumours and is an advisory expert in the drafting and development of oncological guides for the ESMO, the SEOM and the Ministry of Health at the Government of Catalonia.

In 2019 he received the National Research Award of Catalonia for all his contributions to the medicine of cancer. That same year he was named a member of the Horizon Europe Assembly for the Cancer Mission, while in 2020 he received the Award for Career Research from the Catalan Health Institute, and in 2024, the National 21^st Century Medicine Award for medical oncology.