Within the framework of Research Centres of Catalonia, the CERCA Institute has launched the Premis PIONER awards to recognise researchers working in one of the CERCA centres who have presented a doctoral thesis with results that are clearly aimed at commercial exploitation within the previous year. These awards recognize researchers that, through their doctoral thesis, propose to initiate or improve the development of a technology or product that may have an industrial or commercial application, and even that might even have a significant specific contribution to the development of public policy.

This action has the support of private sector entities, representing a good example of a public-private initiative to promote innovation. The collaborating institutions are Caixa d’Enginyers and Fundació Catalana per a la Recerca i la Innovació (FCRI).

In this year’s edition, Maite Etxandi Santolaya, researcher from the Energy System Analytics Department at IREC, got a PIONER 2024 award, given to the best PhD Thesis performed at a CERCA research institute with a clear orientation to the market. The award was delivered today, 18^th of December 2024 at the CERCA headquarters.

Maite Etxandi’s PhD thesis is entitled “A new approach for End-of-Life Emissions in Electric Vehicle Batteries: Maximizing Battery Usage” and challenges the universal criterion for predicting the End of Life of batteries by proposing a more tailored approach through the State of Function. With this new approach, an improved management of the lifecycle can be performed to guarantee that battery reaches the recycling facilities with minimal residual value.

Find more information in the CERCA webpage.