The second edition for these 10 awards, endowed with a total of €12,000, is the result of the collaboration between the City Council and the University of Valladolid, through the university’s foundation, ‘Fundación Universidad de Valladolid'. Both organisations develop and execute different projects with one main objective: to make Valladolid a ‘smart’, sustainable and climate-neutral city, which means advancing in both applied research and in the implementation of initiatives aimed at digital transformation and the implementation of joint actions. And all with a focus on attracting and retaining talent.

In this sense, Valladolid’s mayor, Jesús Julio Carnero has highlighted that “it is essential to prepare, develop and position new professional profiles within our university talent that are capable of facing the new opportunities that the energy transition is already generating in terms of youth employment.”

In addition, Carnero stressed, that “with the planning of the transformational project 'Climate Neutral University of Valladolid', we intend to have the University of Valladolid as the first climate neutral university within the ambitious framework promoted by the Mission and within a perfect city-university pairing.”

In this regard, the president rector of the University of Valladolid, Antonio Largo, has valued the collaboration between the two institutions and stressed the importance of actions such as this, “an example of the talent that is generated in the academic institution,” arguing that “it is a great initiative for the society of Valladolid and for our students, since after striving to achieve their degrees they can demonstrate their acquired knowledge and, in turn, support Valladolid’s sustainable economic and social development.”