The MACBA Auditorium in Barcelona brought together last Thursday some of the most outstanding initiatives in the Catalan technological landscape. Companies and startups that have made innovation a tool to transform society and respond to current challenges. The first edition of the ARA newspaper's FAR Awards recognized five companies for their ability to develop purposeful projects, which combine technology, talent, and social and environmental commitment.

Recognizing projects that not only provide solutions, but also contribute to improving society, is the objective with which the FAR Awards of the ARA newspaper were born. This same idea inspires the design of the award with which the first winners for their initiatives in the technological field have been distinguished. Ricard Marfà, Art Director of the ARA newspaper, is its creator, and Sustain Awards, a company specialized in the production of designer trophies and unique awards with special care for aesthetics and sustainability, is in charge of manufacturing it.

The history of sailing spans thousands of years. From primitive boats to exploration ships and those used for modern sport or recreation to which this practice has currently been relegated. In the Age of Discovery, explorers, conquerors, navigators, and cartographers set out to sea on voyages to the ends of the world to explore maritime routes, conquer new lands, or conduct hydrographic studies driven by the force of the wind, and it is this principle that the Catalan technology company Bound4blue, winner of the Environment Award at the FAR Awards, has recovered to respond to one of the great current challenges of maritime transport: reducing fuel consumption and polluting emissions.

When we go shopping, we pay more and more attention to food labels. A gesture that is common today, but which thirty years ago almost no one considered. The concern for the origin of products, the way they are grown, and their environmental impact was just beginning to make headway. In 1994, coinciding with the creation of the Catalan Council of Organic Agricultural Production (CCPAE), Altinco was born, a company from Mollerussa that was a pioneer in the development of natural-origin solutions for agriculture. Today, integrated into the MatHolding-CERESTIA group, that innovative commitment has earned it the Rural Award at the FAR Awards.

In the image age, visual learning also carries specific weight in education, and it is precisely this educational potential of the moving image that turns Nextus into an educational tool. The digital platform, promoted by filmmaker and founder of DocsBarcelona, Joan Gonzalez, fosters critical thinking in young people and has received the award in the Education category of the ARA newspaper's FAR Awards.

A master's thesis and its author's enthusiasm to generate change are the origin of The Blue Box, thestart-up from Catalonia that has taken the prize in the Health category of this first edition of the FAR Awards, organized by the newspaper ARA. The company, co-founded by biomedical engineer Judith Giró, inventor of the biomedical device that gives it its name and which aspires to replace mammograms as a breast cancer screening method, is on its way to becoming a revolution.

Can a robot replace human contact to combat loneliness? The question seems like science fiction, and even makes one fear the worst of endings, as in movies of the genre. Nothing could be further from the truth. Robotics, together with artificial intelligence, can become one more tool in the care of people, as is done by SOM Care, from Group Saltó, the great winner of the FAR Awards, which has received the distinction for best company in the Cohesion category and also the Jury's Special Award.

We cannot let ourselves be carried away by environmental pessimism. All around us there are many people who work, who research, who transform. Many people who think and act in the service of others. Bringing this committed talent to the surface, giving it a voice and visibility, is a duty of the media that we at ARA take seriously. Of course, we must also explain what does not work, denounce corruption and injustices, and hold those in power accountable. We do this day after day. But the talent we have here at home, in universities, in research centers, in companies, which too often remains hidden, interests us just as much or more. It is a talent that acts in many fields: science, the humanities and the arts, medicine, gastronomy, sports... And also in technology, in a very relevant and transversal way, and often affecting and dialoguing with all other fields.