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DARWIN receives the CincoDías Award for the most innovative technology company

The dean of the economic press gives the award to DARWIN considering that it is an initiative “with a future projection, multiple applications and the possibility of scaling”
The gala of the XV CincoDías Awards for Business Innovation took place on Tuesday, November 8th. The Repsol Auditorium was chosen by the dean of economic press to recognize six entrepreneurs and projects for their “efforts to renew and improve.” “This award is a recognition of the way one participates in the economy, creates jobs, grows,” said the director of CincoDías and El País Economía, Amanda Mars, in her opening speech. The decision to award these six recognitions as examples of business innovation was made by a jury composed of Helena Herrero, president of HP for Southern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa; Cristina Burzako, CEO of Movistar+; Pepita Marín, CEO of We Are Knitters; María Río, director of Gilead Spain, and José Antonio Vega, former director of CincoDías.
In this XV edition, Darwin Bioprospecting Excellence was recognized with the award for the most innovative business project in the field of new technologies, considering it as an initiative “with future projection, multiple applications, and scalability possibilities.” Manuel Porcar, CEO of the company, received the award from the Director of Communication and External Relations of CaixaBank, María Luisa Martínez. “We live in the world of bacteria,” commented Porcar during his speech. “There are trillions of microbial species out there, but we only know the tip of the iceberg. Bacteria weigh a thousand times more than all of humanity combined, and many have brutal biotechnological applications, from disease detection kits that we have all recently discovered, to biofuels, biomaterials… We couldn’t live without microorganisms; ecology would collapse within a few days,” he explained. Porcar pointed out that bacteria “are fundamental for our digestion, for plants to assimilate nutrients and, ultimately, for our planet. Without a doubt, microorganisms will also be essential in the economy of the future, which will be biological; it will be biotechnological or it will not be.” The CEO of Darwin Bioprospecting Excellence concluded his speech thanking the award on behalf of the sixteen professionals who make up the company and who, as he assured, “have believed in this project as much as I have.”
Those who bet on innovation
On the other hand, the Award for the most innovative business initiative in CSR went to the Estar Preparados project by Unespa. The recognition for the most innovative business action linked to the university went to Vytrus Biotech. Deale, a platform that digitizes and accelerates the processes of mergers and acquisitions, won the award for the most innovative startup. Additionally, in this edition, the award for the most innovative executive was split between the general director of the pharmaceutical laboratory Cantabria Labs, Susana Rodríguez, and the president of Grupo Mutua Madrileña, Ignacio Garralda, for being an “example of how innovation can and should also take place in large companies.”
Gala of the XV CincoDías Awards for Business Innovation. Source: Pablo Monge
The event also had the presence of Nadia Calviño, First Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation. During her speech, Calviño highlighted the role of European funds “in the rapid recovery and creation of quality jobs” and “encouraged rowing in the same direction to advance in the new economic model.”
Header photo credit: Pablo Monge