Agri-food Research Prize
Among the founding principles of the Grupo Siro Foundation is that of fostering research. This prize was born out of the Foundation’s quest to promote research as a means of improving the agri-food sector.
The Grupo Siro Foundation’s Agri-food Research Prize is an attempt to recognise and stimulate research in a sphere that is so vital to sustainable development and social wellbeing. The aim is to highlight and help further publicise research studies that lead the field in innovation and practical solutions, and which are the bedrock of social progress.
The objective of the 1st ‘Grupo Siro Foundations’ Agri-food Research Prize’ is to encourage and recognise research work in this field. The intention is to highlight and help further publicise outstanding research studies that could lead to greater specialisation and competitivity in agriculture, and, more specifically, boost the Spanish primary sector – a key factor in sustainable economic development and social progress.
The Prize is 15,000 euros, and there is a runner-up prize of 5,000 euros for projects in Castile-León. This first award is focused on innovation and the technological application of agricultural developments geared to the production of cereals, and in particular to the development of the wheat value chain.
The panel, led by Lucía Urbán López, Vice-chair of the Grupo Siro Foundation and of Grupo Siro, is made up of 15 people with substantial knowledge of the issues, who have wide experience and a long career history in agronomy. Each eminent vote represents a range of organisations that play a key role in the agri-food sector from a scientific, academic and institutional perspective.
The 1st ‘Grupo Siro Foundation Agri-food Research Prize’ was awarded to the Project ‘Advanced GIS tools to assist in decision-making regarding the sustainable management of extensive crops’. This was the sigAGROasesor web platform project, led by Ana Pilar Armesto and coordinated by Alberto Lafarga, both from the Agri-food Technology and Infrastructures Institute of Navarre (INTIA). The runner-up prize for the best project in Castile-León was for the research study carried out by the Functional and Genome Biology Institute of Salamanca, entitled ‘On New Yeasts, Cereals and Baking Products’, led by Mercedes Tamame.
