The Fundació Princesa de Girona (FPdGi) prizes will once again be awarded in Girona after five years, in which the three calls were held in Barcelona. With the objective of recovering the proximity to the original settings, which was affected by the political tension derived from the independence process, the awards ceremony and workshops with young people will take place on July 5 at the Camiral hotel, in Caldes de Malavella. The day before, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofia will tour a symbolic enclave in the province of Girona, as they did last year when they visited the Dalí Museum in Figueres, which was the first time that the heiress was in the territory that gives its name to its historical title.
From 2009 to 2017, the events took place at the Girona Auditorium and in 2018, due to the refusal of the city council to cede the facilities, the awards ceremony was held at Mas Marroch, a hotel complex in Vilablareix, property of the Roca brothers, and the workshops, in the Camiral hotel. In 2019, with the excuse of the tenth anniversary of the Foundation and after the lack of collaboration from the representatives of the Catalan institutions, the awards moved from Girona to Barcelona; in 2020 they were suspended due to the pandemic; in 2021 they continued in Barcelona and last year they were held in Cornellà.
The awards that, once again recognize young talent, will be delivered in a ceremony attended by the King and Queen, the Princess of Girona and the Infanta Sofía. This year’s winners are the violinist María Dueñas; the engineer and founder CEO of Open Cosmos, Rafael Jordá; to the Doctor in Biomedicine and professor at Yale, Marc Schneeberger Pané; to the art therapist and founder of the Palliative Art Foundation, Silvia Fernández Cadevall and to the CEO and co-founder of the Kidogo child care network, Sabrina Habib. Five young talents who, from different fields, work to solve some of the great current challenges such as climate change, emotional well-being, the prevention of obesity, the need to promote music as a universal language or the promotion of equal opportunities .
The Princess of Girona Awards reach their 14th edition this year. Some awards that since 2010 promote research, artistic creativity, innovation, solidarity and the entrepreneurial talent of young people up to 35 years of age who, with their work, effort and dedication, want to improve the world from different areas.
Coinciding with the awards ceremony, other activities will take place throughout the day, on the same stage as the Camiral hotel. In the morning, the King and Queen will chair the meeting of the FPdGi Advisory Council, while Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía will learn more about some of the Foundation’s programs and initiatives. For example, they will discover the main conclusions of the Report “Paths that converge: young people and companies facing the challenge of talent”, prepared by KPMG and the Princess of Girona Foundation through its “Generation Talent” program and in collaboration with the Fundación Universitaria San Pablo CEU and Enagás. This study reveals that 75% of companies have difficulties finding the talent they need, a percentage that rises to 93% in technology companies.
Another of the activities that will take place throughout the morning and in which the princess and the infanta will participate will be a workshop-concert by AmplificARTE. It is an educational project that uses music as a transversal discipline and a tool to work on the personal development and emotional well-being of young people. This initiative, promoted by the Princess of Girona Foundation and Art House Academy, has reached 25 educational centers throughout Spain and has impacted more than 16,000 young people throughout the 2022-23 academic year.
Young talent in the face of great global challenges will be the common thread of the Princess of Girona Awards ceremony led by the founder of Change Dyslexia, Luz Rello and the director of the Mar de Niebla Foundation, Héctor Colunga, winners in the social category in 2016 and 2015, respectively.
In addition to the presenters of the ceremony, other young winners from previous editions will take the stage to introduce the new generation of Foundation winners and reflect on different aspects related to the world of arts and letters, the social sphere, scientific research , innovation and entrepreneurial talent.
The Princess of Girona Foundation (formerly Príncep) created in 2009, is an initiative born from civil society and endorsed by the Royal House to highlight and strengthen the ties of the Crown with Catalonia through events aimed at young people. The political situation caused by the independence process, the lack of institutional collaboration have made it impossible to call in the city of Girona, where central events have not been held since 2018. The persistent refusal of the city council to cede the Auditorium and the will of the FPdGi to award the prizes in Girona, has ended up with the choice of the Camiral hotel, in Caldes de Malavella, as the setting for the awarding of the prizes and the workshops, which will take place on the next 5th of July.
Since 2009, the conferences and awards ceremony have been held at the Audiori de Girona in events that Carles Puigdemont attended with apparent normality, first as mayor and later as president of the Generalitat. In 2018, after the events of October 2017, the city council, chaired by Marta Madrenas (JuntsxCat) alleging works in the auditorium, canceled the rental contract with the Fundació and the events, quickly and quickly, had to be moved to two private and closed venues: Mas Marroch, the Roca brothers’ banqueting facilities, located in Vilablareix, and the Camiral hotel, in Caldes de Malavella, the same one where the awards ceremony will be held on July 5th and the different workshops with the participation of young people and entrepreneurial leaders.
The Princess of Asturias participated for the first time in the awards ceremony, as well as in the activities that took place, in 2019, the year in which the FPdGi celebrated its 10th anniversary. Given the impossibility of celebrating her anniversary in Girona and during the month of June; The central events of the FpdGi were scheduled for the month of November in Barcelona, ??and took place at the Palau de Congresos de Catalunya, on Diagonal, amidst extreme security measures that even forced the northern access road to the city to be cut.
Princess Leonor’s debut at the awards allowed her to hear her speak Catalan for the first time and, furthermore, confirm her involvement with the foundation and its objectives, as well as show her commitment to Catalonia and its history.
In 2020, the restrictions due to the pandemic gave the FpdGI a breath of fresh air, since both the award ceremony and health restrictions were suspended, the decision of where to celebrate the awards was moved to the following year. In 2021, again, and without the collaboration of the institutional managers and the protests of sectors linked to the procés, it was not possible to schedule the celebration of the events in any of the public facilities in Girona, neither in the capital, nor in the province, and the ceremony, as in 2019, was held in Barcelona, ??this time at the Caixa Forum facilities, in Montjuic.
Last year, without the problem having been resolved, the FPdGi continued without finding an alternative location in Girona or the province and the prizes were awarded in the Cornellá auditorium, owned by the Agbar company, an old water tank that was donated free of charge by their managers. A series of complementary events, such as youth meetings and debates, was held in the Albéniz palace, where the Kings, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofía were staying. As a symbolic act, the day before the awards ceremony, Leonor and Sofía visited the Dalí museum in Figueres.
The Fundació Príncep de Girona was created in 2009 (which in 2014, after the proclamation of Felipe VI, was renamed the Princess of Girona) in order to consolidate the link between the Crown and Catalonia. The change in the ownership of the Crown also meant the change in the name of the foundation that bears the historical title of the heir to the kingdom of Aragon and the county of Barcelona, ??which Leonor now holds, along with those also linked to the Crown of Aragon. like those of the Duchess of Montblanc, Countess of Cervera and Lady of Balaguer. As long as Leonor is a minor, a period that expires on October 31, it will be her father who represents her in the foundations, although in recent years, the Princess, due to her presence at the awards ceremony from 2019, has been progressively linked.
