Your Majesties, Honourable President of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, authorities, members of the Princess of Girona Foundation, juries, ladies and gentlemen:

 On behalf of all the award winners: Thank you very much.

 Over the past few days, thinking about this moment, I have been recalling endless memories and words... so many people, so many situations, some coincidences and perhaps even a few lucky accidents that have brought the five of us together here on this stage today. At this precise moment, as fleeting as magic, we feel absolutely delighted and, above all, very grateful.

This image is a still from the film Match point, by Woody Allen; it shows the moment when a voice off screen says: “There are moments in a match when the ball hits the top of the net, and for a split second, it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck, it goes forward, and you win. Or maybe it doesn’t, and you lose.”

 Those seconds seem eternal... They are exciting and intense little moments that occur after long gruelling journeys. And when this happens, when you get that stroke of luck and you win the point, you must know how to recognise your opportunity and take advantage of that impulse. And this means knowing how to tackle a first time.

 All of us have had a first time... In fact, that could be the definition of the term young: the innocent belief that anything is possible, the excitement of making dreams come true, the uncertainty about whether you are making the right decision, the lightness of having more to gain than to lose. Basically, the freedom of knowing that ‘everything is yet to be done’, without prejudices or burdens, with caution but without fear. We are young and now it’s our turn.

 Today, we have already taken a step forward. We, who have not had to live through a war as our grandparents did, or fight for our freedom of expression as our parents did, we have been educated and very well prepared for a situation and a world that have disappeared and no longer exist today.

 Professionally, we were born in times of crisis, and uncertainty and change are our natural habitat. But this condition does not frighten us, instead it makes us strong, resilient and free. If you look at us, if you look really closely, you will realise that we have already been through it... We did not come here to be encouraged and driven; we are here to do the encouraging and driving.

 We really want to help, to build the world and the cities we have imagined, to build links between close and distant cultures. For us, science, social action, architecture, entrepreneurship... these are all a form of knowledge and a way of life.

 And, as Héctor says, it is important for us to face these challenges together. Because it is only if we build as a group and focus on inequality that we will be able to make those little adjustments that allow us to dream about a more just and dignified society for everybody.

 And this is the same vision with which Secretariado Gitano has been working for more than thirty years to change the social view of Roma people. We need the new generations to have a mutual outlook that breaks down prejudices and recognises diversity as an asset.

 Bernat has called for an end to the tension that still exists in our universities between the mission to conduct research and the commercialisation of new discoveries, and he is convinced that entrepreneurship is an indispensable vehicle that will ensure that investment in universities yields innovations that filter down into society.

From his position as a young scientist, Samuel reminds us of the importance of trusting science and the scientists who seek, both in basic and applied science, new discoveries that will help us improve our quality of life. Today’s young scientists are the key to a sustainable future for all of us.

 We five do not dream about great adventures or heroic deeds that end up saving the world. We do not believe in invincible knights or in superheroes. We are normal people, and we take the little everyday things around us and turn them into great opportunities and extraordinary adventures. We are concerned about local issues applied globally. Because we are global: we are connected, we work in networks and in collaboration, we have a great capacity to interrelate... to overlap situations, to cooperate, to intermediate, to communicate and to share.

 We make virtual reality compatible with physical reality, urban fabric and infrastructure compatible with natural systems and the landscape, tourism with residents, technology and life... We also work to make work compatible with family life, we strive to integrate, to blur the limits and the borders, to erase prejudices, and open up viewpoints.

 We believe that anything is possible, we understand that different people and cultures living together peacefully enriches us and that history is the knowledge that allows us to progress steadily towards the future... Because we know that tomorrow’s world will be better than today’s, and we know that this is in our hands.

 Finally, all of us winners would like to express our deepest gratitude to the Princess of Girona Foundation for this award.