• José Antonio Santano emphasises that the ENAIRE Foundation's Photography and Lifetime Achievement Awards “are well-established and serve as a benchmark for advancing the careers” of artists and creators
• The awards presented include the Photography, Lifetime Achievement, Espacio-Manuel Abejón, Aeronautical Innovation-Luis Azcárraga, Undergraduate and Master's Dissertation-José Ramón López Villares, I+Dron, and Aeronautical Journalism awards, along with the special mentions for the 30th anniversary of the ENAIRE Foundation
• Joan Fontcuberta receives the ENAIRE Foundation 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to contemporary photography
• In 2026, the ENAIRE Foundation will strengthen its outreach work with a permanent exhibition project on Emilio Herrera, which will be donated to the ICAO museum on 6 October
José Antonio Santano Clavero, Secretary of State for Transport and Sustainable Mobility and Chairman of ENAIRE, presented the 2025 ENAIRE Foundation Awards across their various categories at the Assembly Hall of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility (MITMS). The ceremony also included the Aeronautical Mentions introduced for the Foundation's 30th anniversary, which was celebrated one year ago.
Every year, the ENAIRE Foundation Awards honour photographers, communicators and aeronautical researchers, and have become a benchmark in both fields.
José Antonio Santano thanked the award recipients for their contribution “to both the aeronautical and artistic spheres” and praised the ENAIRE Foundation's track record and growing prestige—in aeronautics as much as in artistic dissemination and promotion—driven by “the boldness with which it has fulfilled its social role as a cultural public service.”
He also drew attention to the modernisation the ENAIRE Foundation has pursued in recent years, building a digital ecosystem designed to open up its exhibitions and activities to audiences worldwide through innovative formats such as videos, mobile apps, augmented reality and virtual tours.
The ENAIRE Foundation's latest artistic and aeronautical outreach milestone is its contribution to the exhibition project on Emilio Herrera, the distinguished aeronautical engineer and inventor of the first space suit. The exhibition will be donated by the Spanish State to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on 6 October.
ENAIRE Foundation Photography Awards 2025
This eighteenth edition of the Photography Award attracted 547 professional artists, who submitted a total of 1,375 entries. The three winning works, which now form part of the ENAIRE Contemporary Art Collection, are as follows:
First prize (€12,000) went to Tanit Plana for ‘Stress position’, an image that distils themes of exclusion and pain with striking visual force and sensitivity. Second prize (€8,000) went to Daniel Ochoa de Olza for his photograph ‘Perturbación. Flor del Desierto, Sonora. N32°22.552' W114°25.506’, a work that exposes—with subtlety and poetic power—the violence of the invisible borders imposed on nature. Third prize (€5,000) went to Françoise Vanneraud for ‘El eco de las cumbres’, a sculptural assemblage of mountainous landscape photographs.
PHotoESPAÑA also awarded a Special Mention to ‘Et in Arcadia Ego’ by José Quintanilla, an image born of technical excellence and a careful, contemplative eye.
The ENAIRE Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award (€17,000) was presented to Joan Fontcuberta in recognition of a lifetime devoted to photography. Fontcuberta is one of the most influential conceptual artists and image theorists in international contemporary photography.
ENAIRE Foundation Aeronautical Awards 2025
The 30th edition of the Aeronautical Awards attracted 51 entries comprising a total of 63 projects.
The Espacio–Manuel Abejón Adámez Award (€10,000) went to Francisco Ángel Espartero Briceño for his research paper ‘Robotic Satellite Observatory’, published in 2024 by MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute). Developed by researchers at the Ignacio Da Riva Microgravity Institute (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) and the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, the paper sets out the design of a robotic satellite observatory for detecting, tracking and determining the trajectories of near-Earth objects.
The Aeronautical Innovation–Luis Azcárraga Award (€10,000) went to the team of Raúl Quibén Figueroa, Rauno Cavallaro and Andrea Cini for their paper ‘Feasibility Studies on Regional Aircraft Retrofitted with Hybrid-Electric Powertrains’, published in Aerospace Science and Technology (Elsevier) in May 2024. Carried out by researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, the study examines the feasibility of retrofitting regional aircraft with hybrid-electric propulsion systems.
The I+Dron Award (€10,000) went to Ander Maiztegi, of start-up Zeru Drones, for the project ‘Autonomous 5G platform for the creation of smart infrastructures for continuous territorial observation’, focused on environmental monitoring and inspection using drones.
The Undergraduate and Master's Dissertation–José Ramón López Villares Award (two prizes of €5,000 each) was also presented, spanning two categories: air navigation and airports. In the air navigation category, the prize went to Sara Ruano Ferrer for her master's thesis ‘Development of a Mathematical Model for STAM Measures Optimal Application’, submitted in March 2024 at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Aeronáutica y del Espacio (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid). The thesis develops a mathematical model for optimising very short-term airspace management to alleviate congestion. In the airports category, the prize went to Fernando Real Rojas for his undergraduate dissertation ‘Transport network design: integrating modal competition with convex optimisation techniques’, submitted in 2024 at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Fuenlabrada (Madrid).
The Aeronautical Journalism Award (€10,000) went to Ion Larrañaga Gurruchaga, Iñaqui Leturia Yurrita and Beñardo Kortabarria Olabarria for their report ‘At Bilbao Airport’, broadcast in April 2024 on TEKNOPOLIS, the science and technology programme on Euskal Telebista (ETB2).
Special Mentions
To mark its 30th anniversary, the ENAIRE Foundation awarded four Special Aeronautical Mentions to institutions and professionals whose support, dedication and commitment to aeronautical culture have played a significant role in the Foundation's three decades of activity.
The recipients were Enrique Moral Sandoval, the ENAIRE Foundation's first managing director; the Fundación Infante de Orleans, Spain's foremost institution for the conservation and flight of historic aircraft, based at Cuatro Vientos Airport (Madrid); the Fundació Parc Aeronàutic de Catalunya (FPAC), which works to preserve Catalonia's aeronautical heritage; and the Fundación Aérea de la Comunidad Valenciana (FACV), which is dedicated to the research, conservation and promotion of the Valencian Community's aeronautical heritage.
About ENAIRE Foundation
Is a cultural institution of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility that, in addition to managing, preserving and exhibiting the ENAIRE Collection of Contemporary Art, engages in a comprehensive annual programme of activities that focus on aeronautical art and culture. Notably, it is one of the institutions that currently provides the most support to photography through its annual prizes - which have become a benchmark for professional photographers - and by hosting exhibits.
It is the only foundation in Spain that combines the two seemingly disparate themes of art and aeronautical culture, bringing them together by undertaking a programme of activities that promote the study, research, knowledge and dissemination of aeronautical culture, integrating history and modernity to raise awareness of the world of aviation in our country.
The Naves de Gamazo are the first permanent home of the ENAIRE Collection of Contemporary Art, an example of collaboration between government agencies that was made possible thanks to the partnership and joint efforts of the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, the Government of Cantabria, through the Office for Culture, Tourism and Sport, and the Port Authority of Santander, which share the operating expenses of the centre in order to ensure the present and future viability of this cultural project.
ENAIRE Foundation is implementing digital museum resources to boost the democratisation of art and make it accessible from anywhere in the world. These new museum resources are now available on the Foundation's website.
About ENAIRE
ENAIRE is the air navigation service provider in Spain.
As a company of the Ministry of Sustainable Transport and Mobility, it provides air traffic control services during the en route and approach phases of all flights to and from Spain and overflights. In addition, it manages communications, navigation and surveillance services from ENAIRE in the airspace and the entire AENA airport network in Spain and provides aerodrome air traffic control services in 21 airports, including the busiest.
ENAIRE is the fourth largest European air navigation service provider, and it is a member of international partnerships A6 Alliance, SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research) Joint Undertaking, SESAR Deployment Manager, iTEC, CANSO (Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation) and collaborates closely with ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization).
ENAIRE has obtained the highest rating in the key performance indicator for air safety at European scale for six consecutive years, the last five with the maximum possible score of 100%. It has also been awarded the EFQM 600 Seal for its safe, efficient, innovative and sustainable management of air navigation services.