UB Editions wins three awards at the Joan Lluís Vives Prize of the Vives Network of Universities
On 17 July, the University of Barcelona hosted the award ceremony for the Medal of Honour 2025 of the Vives Network to the writer and linguist Albert Jané i Riera and the biochemist Fàtima Bosch i Tubert, as well as the presentation of the 7th Joan Lluís Vives Awards for university publishing, in which UB Editions won three prizes. The event, which took place in the Aula Magna of the Historic Building, was presided over by the president of the Vives Network and rector of the University, Joan Guàrdia, who also collected the awards received by UB Editions, and was attended by the Catalan Minister for Language Policy, Francesc Xavier Vila.
On 17 July, the University of Barcelona hosted the award ceremony for the Medal of Honour 2025 of the Vives Network to the writer and linguist Albert Jané i Riera and the biochemist Fàtima Bosch i Tubert, as well as the presentation of the 7th Joan Lluís Vives Awards for university publishing, in which UB Editions won three prizes. The event, which took place in the Aula Magna of the Historic Building, was presided over by the president of the Vives Network and rector of the University, Joan Guàrdia, who also collected the awards received by UB Editions, and was attended by the Catalan Minister for Language Policy, Francesc Xavier Vila.
The book from the UB’s popular science collection Catàlisi, Tots els colours de l’Univers. La descoberta de l’espectre de radiació electromagnètica, by Pere Serra Coromina, won the prize for the best science and technology book. It tells the story of the discovery of the electromagnetic spectrum, the intangible reality that extends from radio waves to gamma rays, of which we only see a tiny part: visible light.
Cuidar-se en comunitat. Una aproximació a les llars col·laboratives per a persones grans, by Marta Pi Martín, was named the best book in social sciences. It is a pioneering monograph that delves into a new paradigm of cohabitation that has experienced considerable expansion at both European and national level: senior co-housing.
Finally, Filosofia política. Una introducció, by Sergi Morales Gálvez, Elvira Riera Gil, Lluís Pérez Lozano and Marc Sanjaume Calvet (eds.), won the prize for best book in the arts and humanities. The book reflects on the diversity of possible answers to questions such as what characterizes good governance and how it can be achieved, or which political systems can be considered fair.
The Joan Lluís Vives Prizes aim to raise awareness of the role of university publishing in the transfer of knowledge in Catalan, and the value and quality of the work carried out by the university publishers of the Vives Network.
The event also paid tribute to two key figures in language, research and social progress: Albert Jané and Fàtima Bosch.
Albert Jané has been dedicated to the Catalan language for decades in various fields, especially linguistics and translation. During the ceremony, his time leading the magazine Cavall Fort, where he contributed to the growth of several generations of readers in Catalan, was fondly remembered. The writer, who was unable to collect the award for health reasons, expressed his gratitude for the prize in a video.
Fàtima Bosch, professor at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where she has directed the Centre for Animal Biotechnology and Gene Therapy since its creation in 2003, has been recognized as one of the most influential researchers in gene therapy worldwide, especially in the study and treatment of diabetes. Bosch has declared herself deeply grateful for this recognition, which she wanted to share with all the people and teams that have accompanied her in her research career.
Joan Guàrdia closed the event by defending universities “as agents of change in the most symbolic sense”: “We continue to be an unavoidable point of reference. Science is the answer to doubts and uncertainties. The light and the knowledge that we generate stand up to the darkness that some want to impose on us”.
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