The energy company has been sponsoring this competition to foster R&D&i projects among young researchers in Valencia for five years.

The Councillor for Sport and Youth, Cristóbal Grau, presided today over the presentation of awards from the 8th 'Valencia Idea' competition at an event that was also attended by the Managing Director of Gas Natural Cegas, Roberto Cámara, to personally present several of the awards to the winning researchers as event sponsor. This year, the award ceremony was held in the Salón de Cristal in the Valencia City Council building and was also attended by the Councillor for Employment and Innovation, Beatriz Simón.

The 'Valencia Idea' competition, organised by the Youth Board of the InnDEA Foundation, is aimed at promoting R&D&i activity among young researchers in the city and seeks to encourage projects and research initiatives capable of being converted into innovative products, processes or services that will later lead to increased knowledge for application in the city of Valencia.

This is the fifth year that Gas Natural Cegas has sponsored the event as part of its commitment to collaborating with Valencian society beyond its business activity through a broad sponsorship programme and various lines of action in the fields of society, culture and the environment.

Four categories and more prize money

New this year and thanks to a joint effort from the organisers and sponsors, it has been possible to raise the amount of funding awarded in each category and thereby increase the chance of prizewinners actually implementing their projects successfully.

By category, the winning projects were as follows:

"Biotechnology and Biomedicine":

"Quantification of the levels of messenger RNA and podocyte-associated proteins in urine: diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of nephropathy in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus".

"Development of new vectors for editing DNA via CRISPR applications in gene therapy".

"Production of chiral intermediates for fine chemicals based on bioplastics produced by Pseudomonas putida".

"Energy and the Environment":

"New nano-composites for energy storage"

  • Runners-up Prize, ex aequo

"Mobincity: smart mobicity in smart city"

  • Runners-up Prize, ex aequo

"E2 stormed: improved energy efficiency in rainwater management"

"Fuel cell based on oxygenated water and hydrochloric acid"

"Information and Communication Technologies (ICT)":

"Receteame"

"Piece classification system based on artificial sight"

"Optically enhanced spectral coherent detection (OESED)"

"Agri-food":

"Use of arbuscular mycorrhizae to improve the productivity of plant species used in the agri-food and pharmaceutical industries in soils of poor nutritional content"

"Functional beverage made from rice with plant stanols: repurposing Valencian rice"

"Production of consumer products and/or functional ingredients based on yellow pitahaya and yacon"

Presence in the Region of Valencia

Gas Natural Cegas, GAS NATURAL FENOSA's natural gas distributor in the Region of Valencia, has been operating in the region for more than 170 years. It has more than 644,500 supply points and a distribution network of more than 7,800 kilometres. The company currently supplies natural gas to 195 towns and cities in the Region of Valencia and continues to make significant investments to bring natural gas to new communities and strengthen the current distribution and transport network.


Valencia, 22 October 2014.

distributed by