On Zientzia awards for the best short videos on science and technology

The ON ZIENTZIA video contest, organized annually by Elhuyar and Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) in the framework of the television program Teknopolis, aims to produce and disseminate short and original videos on science and technology, aimed at all audiences. This year's awards ceremony, the fifteenth edition of the contest, was held today at Tabakalera.

This year 94 videos have been received, most of them in Basque, also in Spanish and English, since the origin of the participants extends all over the world. Although most of the works have been submitted from the Basque Country, several videos have also been received from Peru and the Philippines, among others. All the participating videos can be viewed on the contest website. 

The jury has decided to award the prize for the best popularization video (3,000 €) ex aequo to two works in Basque and Spanish. On the one hand, the Cantabrian siblings Isadora, Renata and Leonel Virosta Gutiérrez were the winners of the main prize for the video "¿Cómo se forman realmente los bebés?". The jury highlighted that “the video is able to explain in a very effective way the complexity of life through crafts and very well combined resources”. On the other hand, the main prize also went to Unai García López from Andoain, for his video “Etorkizuna gaur”. In the opinion of the jury, “it is a very well thought story, with well used images and that makes reflect on a hot topic”.

Joseba Zabala from Asteasu was the winner of the prize for the best video in Basque (2,000 €), for the work “Ezkutuko erraldoiaren eragina”. According to the jury, “besides being aesthetically pleasant, the video shows the value of discarded hypotheses; it is a beautiful video that explains how science moves forward”.

The Youth Prize (1,000 €) went to Ubay Moll Ruiz, for his work “Platano erradioaktiboak”. In the words of the jury, “it is a video that explains different concepts well and is aesthetically coherent from beginning to end”.

This year, in addition, as the United Nations has proclaimed 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, the jury also awarded an extraordinary prize: The BasQ prize for the best video on quantum (500 €). The award went to the physicist Enric Ponce de León from Barcelona for the work “Quantum Café”. In the words of the jury, “it is an original video that knows how to explain a very abstract and difficult to understand concept through the things that happen in a cafeteria”.

The awards were presented by Adolfo Morais Ezquerro, Deputy Minister of Science and Innovation; Jon Abril Olaetxea, general coordinator of Elhuyar; Aran García Lekue, director of strategic projects of the DIPC; Marian Iriarte Ormazabal, vice-rector of the UPV/EHU and member of the jury; and Javier Aizpurua Iriazabal, scientific director of BasQ.

As for the jury in charge of evaluating the videos, it was formed by Marian Iriarte Ormazabal, vice-rector of Institutional Relations and Culture of the UPV/EHU; Jon Mattin Matxain, dean of the Faculty of Chemistry of the UPV/EHU and associate of the DIPC; Itxaso Azcune, communication technician of the DIPC; and Nagore Rementeria Argote, member of Elhuyar and director of the Teknopolis program.

The ceremony will be broadcasted in a special TV program Teknopolis, together with the awarded works and the statements of the winners. The program can be seen on June 7 at 13:30 on ETB1, and on June 8 at 13:30 on ETB2.