One hundred and ninety-two works have been accepted for this year's short story, poetry, and novel competition. The jury's decision will be announced on May 28.

Participation in this year's literary awards has increased at a very high level. The deadline for entries closed last February and a total of 192 original works were submitted, 82 of them for the novel prize, 85 for the poetry prize and 25 for the short story prize. These figures are the highest since 2002, when the organizers -the City Council and the University- decided to merge their respective contests and start the competition together.

This year, the 15th “Caterina Albert” Short Narrative Prize for Young People, worth 500 euros; the 29th “Miquel Martí i Pol” Poetry Prize, worth 1,000 euros; and the 30th “Valldaura - Pere Calders Memorial” Novel Prize, worth 3,000 euros.

Currently, the members of the juries of each category are reviewing the works and the verdict will be announced on May 28, at 4 pm, at the awards ceremony to be held at the Auditorium of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UAB. The event will be attended by: Javier Lafuente Sancho, Rector of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Rosa María Sebastián, Vice-rector of Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship of the UAB; and Margarita Freixas i Alás, Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of the UAB. Regarding the City Council, the event will be attended by: Carlos Cordón, Mayor of the Cerdanyola del Vallès City Council; and David González Chanca, Councilor of Culture, Communication and EMD of Bellater.

The event will be recorded and can be followed live on the UAB YouTube Channel.

Tributes to Àngel Guimerà and Maria-Mercè Marçal

The organization of the awards wishes to pay tribute in this edition to Àngel Guimerà (1845-1924), the Catalan playwright who has enjoyed the greatest international projection and one of the great poets of the Catalan 19th century, coinciding with the centenary of his death and the commemoration of the Guimerà Year by the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya. In fact, the City Council of Cerdanyola already paid tribute to the 100th anniversary of the death of Àngel Guimerà to the 23rd Marathon of reading, which organized last April 23 for St. George. In this line, the assistants to the awards ceremony will be able to enjoy a performance dedicated to Guimerà's work, by the UAB Chamber Choir, conducted by Poire Vallvé.

On the other hand, the event will also recognize the work of the poet and feminist activist, Maria-Mercè Marçal (1952-1998), through the poetic recital Marçal sentida, which will be given by Sofia Oliva Sabater and Laia Solé Moreno, predoctoral researcher in Greek Philology at the UAB and student of Fine Arts at the UB, respectively.

Noms. Revista de la Societat d'Onomàstica has published a review of the book Tot un món en català in its latest issue (22).

Tot un món en català is the work of David Paloma Sanllehí, PhD in Catalan Philology and professor of Catalan language at the Faculty of Communication Sciences of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

The book deals with exonymy, that is, the exogenous or foreign toponymy that has a Catalan form, one of the least treated aspects of toponymy, but which is today one of the most lively topics and one that generates the most doubts and queries, both in the world of the media and in the world of linguistic advice.

You can consult the whole issue and the review (pages 21-22) at the following link: https://www.imatgies.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Noms22.pdf

Until 3 February, researchers who are authors of publications included in the Intercambio Científico (IC) system of digital books for the use of the university community can include the statistics of consultation of this project as an indication of relevance and impact to the current call for research sexenios of 2024.

Lo IC is a project that the Union of Spanish University Publishers (UNE) promoted in 2016 and since then more than 14,000 ebooks, corresponding to monographs and manuals of all areas of knowledge, are exchanged by 63 universities and are available to researchers, teachers and students through the libraries of the campuses and research centres adhered to the programme. In the case of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), the Publications Service makes available its entire digital collection, which consists of more than 180 publications. In this sense, researchers who have published an e-book with our Service will be able to compute the statistics of the CI for their six-year periods.

To find out which books are part of the CI and their data, please visit the following page: https://www.une.es/estadisticas-intercambio-cientifico. The statistics show the evolution of consultations, according to publisher, library or publication. In the case of the UAB, the work Investigación en psicologia i logopedia, by Mariona Portell and Jaume Vives, professors of the Department of Psychobiology and Methodology of Health Sciences at the UAB, is the second most consulted university publication. Investigación en psicologia y logopedia has a total of 360,088 page views and is available in open access digital format and in paid paper format

Alexandre Planas Ballet is the author of the book Projeccions, which won the XVIII Poetry Prize "Miquel Martí i Pol", awarded by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the City Council of Cerdanyola del Vallès in 2023.

On the occasion of Sant Jordi's Day 2024, on Tuesday, April 23, the writer will sign copies of Projeccions, from 12 pm to 2 pm, at the Francesc Layret square in Cerdanyola del Vallès. The author will share a literary space with other authors of the city, where they will also read and recommend their works. From 4 pm in the afternoon, Planas will move to Corberà de Llobregat, his home town, to finish his book signing and give a live interview to Radio Corbera, in the Plaza del Mil·lenari.

Coinciding with the celebration of Sant Jordi, the website Lletresbàrbares.cat has published a review of the book, which can be consulted at the following link: https://www.lletresbarbares.cat/articles/versos-a-24-fotogrames-per-segon

On Thursday 13 February, at 7 p.m., the book Desinformación y poder. Alquimias de la persuasión, at Documenta bookshop in Barcelona. The book is co-published by four universities in the Aldea Global collection: the UAB, the Universitat Jaume I, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the Universitat de València. The event was attended by Virginia Luzón, lecturer in Audiovisual Communication and Advertising and Vice Rector of Communication at the UAB; Catalina Gayà, lecturer in the Department of Media, Communication and Culture at the UAB and member of the Aldea Global Board of Directors; and Raúl Rodríguez Fernándiz, Professor of Semiotics of Mass Communication at the University of Alicante and author of the book. The book is aimed at people who work in communication and all those who want to know how truth is displacing the power of information.

The Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) has published Economía circular. El camino hacia la sostenibilidad, by Joan Rieradevall Pons and Carles Gasol Martínez, a book that presents the circular economy as one of the key strategies for achieving sustainable development.

The current economic system is unsustainable: only 5% of products and services are circular, and all projections indicate that the socio-environmental impact of consumption will continue to increase in the coming years. In response to this issue, the circular economy (CE) is becoming not only a necessity but also an emerging reality, thanks to greater consumer awareness and a stricter environmental regulatory framework. The CE seeks to establish more efficient and resilient systems of production and consumption, preserving resources within a continuous cycle that optimizes their value and minimizes waste generation. In this context, public and private entities play a fundamental role in promoting CE through the implementation of policies and standards and by raising public awareness.

The Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) has just released the book Economía circular. El camino hacia la sostenibilidad, written by professors of Chemical, Biological and Environmental Engineering Joan Rieradevall Pons and Carles Gasol Martínez. The book aims to introduce readers to the concept of the circular economy, proposing it as one of the decisive strategies of the 21st century to foster sustainable development, and questioning whether it will become a short-term reality or remain a mere aspiration, by analyzing political, economic, social and environmental factors.

In the book, the authors present case studies, indicators, tools, and strategies for innovation, resource prevention and minimization, as well as examples of circular ecodesign and overall improvement of products and services, in order to demonstrate that a fully circular future is possible.

The UAB Publications Service has been responsible for editing the book, which is available in paid print format and free open-access electronic format.

About the authors

Joan Rieradevall Pons holds a PhD in Chemical Sciences, is a scientific advisor to the Sostenipra group at ICTA, and a founding partner of Inèdit Innovació and Tectum Garden. He coordinates national and international research and development projects related to environmental improvement. He is a professor of environmental technology and circular economy at Spanish and Latin American universities. His awards include: Best EU LIFE Project (2015), Design for Recycling (2001 and 2013), Sustainable Projects of the City of Barcelona (2004), and the City of Barcelona Award for Applied Environmental Technology (1991).

Carles Gasol Martínez holds a degree in Environmental Sciences from the University of Girona (2003) and a PhD (2009) and Master's (2006) in Environmental Sciences from the UAB. He is a founding partner of Inèdit Innovació, a knowledge transfer company in circular economy affiliated with the UAB research park. He is also a professor of industrial ecology in the master’s programs of Environmental Studies and Environmental Studies – Cities & Sustainability at the UAB. He participates in various postgraduate and master's programs at universities such as UPC and UB.

Booktrailer

On June 5, the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences interviewed Julio Mario Hoyos and Juan Carlos Moreno, Biologist and Philosopher, respectively, and authors of the book Las claves de la investigación Científica, recently published by the Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcleona (UAB).

The interview was included in the project “Diàlegs amb la ciència a Colòmbia”, to answer some of the questions that Hoyos and Moreno unveil in their book: How does science work; what are the main methods used in scientific research; how is knowledge organized and administered in the field of science? The conversation, in a non-specialized language and with a pedagogical purpose, offered useful orientations for scientists in their research work, for educators in the training of research skills and for science administrators in the management of research projects.

The program was broadcasted live and can be heard in its entirety at the following link: https://radio.unal.edu.co/detalle/claves-para-entender-la-investigacion-cientifica

Yesterday, Thursday, the certificates of the CEA-APQ Seal of Quality in Academic Publishing for the evaluation of scientific monographs were delivered to Madrid. This is the first time that the National Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation (ANECA), the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT) and the Union of Spanish University Publishers (UNE) have announced the award.

Thirty-five monographs, belonging to different universities and research centres, have been accredited for their quality and transparency of information, quality of editorial policy and quality of the editorial process and scientific evaluation.

Among the accredited monographs is El Papus (1973-1987). Contrapoder informativo en la Transición española, a work by Maria Iranzo Cabrera, and included in the collection on communication and communication technologies, "Aldea Global", which is co-published by the Universitat Jaume I, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, the Universitat de València and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

The event was attended by Susana Quicios, director of the ANECA Teacher Evaluation Division, Imma Aguilar, director general of the FECYT, and María Isabel Cabrera, president of the UNE, who handed out the certificates.

Joan Carles Marset, director of the UAB Publications Service, was in charge of collecting the certificate for El Papus (1973-1987). Contrapoder informativo en la Transición española, on behalf of the UAB. During his speech, Marset stressed "the importance of inter-university co-publications as a way of promoting knowledge transfer, reinforcing cooperation between universities and adding synergies to make scientific publications viable that would otherwise be difficult for a single institution to undertake". Even so, the editor called for co-publishing to be valued as a factor of collaboration, which contributes to enriching the ecosystem of university publishing in our country.

Since its creation in 2017, the CEA-APQ Seal has been recognised as an indication of the quality of publications in the evaluation of research activity, a recognition carried out by the National Commission for the Evaluation of Research Activity (CNEAI), and in the evaluation criteria of the research merits claimed for the different figures of accreditation of teaching staff carried out by ANECA. Until 2023, the Seal was only awarded for collections. With the new call for monographs, this evaluation criterion is consolidated and enhances the importance of this certification for the authors of the works, the publishers, the evaluation system of research activity and Spanish science.

The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) Publications Service will soon be present at three events in the publishing sector: the 42nd Granada Book Fair, the 59th edition of the Valencia Book Fair and the 36th Bogotá International Book Fair. The first will take place from April 19 to 28, the second from April 25 to May 5 and the third from April 17 to May 2.

The UAB publishing house will be exhibiting some of its new titles for the 2023-2024 academic year at the stand of the Spanish University Publishers Union (UNE). It will be possible to purchase titles, aimed at all audiences, such as El hechizo del tren, by Johari Gautier; Innovación y liderazgo. El nacimiento del código de barras, by Gabriel Izard; Las claves de la investigación científica, of Julio Mario Hoyos and Juan Carlos Moreno; or Legislación y derecho digital para no juristas, by Cristina Blasi i Josep Cañabate.

The writer and philosopher Arià Paco has won the 10th Anagrama Book Prize for Novels 2025, with Teoria del joc. Honest and incisive, Arià Paco opens the door to a male narrative about heterosexual desire, seduction and sex for a new generation of men who are not quite different but are no longer the same; a narrative that has no use for old stories or labels, and that has a whole new landscape to explore.

This is the third novel by the 31-year-old writer from Igualada. In 2020 he debuted with the work Mentir a les mosques, which won the XXVI Premio de Novela ‘Valldaura - Memorial Pere Calders’, organised by the City Council of Cerdanyola del Vallès and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), centred on a refugee whom the extreme right threatens to expel. Subsequently, in 2022, the author received the Roc Boronat literary prize for Covarda, vella, tan salvatge, in which he delved into the discontents and contradictions of young millennials. With Teoria del joc, Paco has established himself as one of the most promising young writers of Catalan literature today.