The application period for the Co-publishing Barcelona Books Awards is now closed

The application period for co-publishing projects closed on September 23. The call will be resolved at the end of October, once the jury has met, and the selected projects will then be contacted with the aim of finalizing the co-publishing agreement during November and paying the prize amount before the end of 2025.

The award will consist of the co-edition of the proposed book through the formalisation of a co-edition agreement between the awarded legal person and Barcelona City Council that sets out the terms of the co-edition and includes financial support from the City Council to fund it. 

The awards jury is made up of members of the Barcelona City Council Publications Board; their decisions are not subject to appeal and they reserve the right to decide on any aspect not provided for in these terms, especially the power to declare the award null and void if they deem there is justification for doing so.

Applicants will be notified of the provisional and final resolutions, as well as all administrative decisions resulting from any administrative processing relating to applications submitted as part of a call for applications within the framework of these rules, electronically via e-NOTUM.

The call will be settled in late October. The applicants behind the selected projects will be contacted with a view to closing the co-edition agreement during November and paying them the amount of the award before the end of 2025. 

Once the project is completed, the entities or publishing houses that received the award must justify how the funds were applied, in accordance with the provisions of the legal regulations relating to grants in effect.

The general purpose of the awards is to help expand and disseminate knowledge about Barcelona through informative publications, and to promote the effective use, dissemination and promotion of these publications. The awards also serve to establish a framework for collaboration with the publishing sector and to provide support for it.

FAQs

  • No, participation in this call is open to any legal person whose founding objectives include book publishing that meets the requirements and purpose of the call and that falls within the scope of these regulatory terms. 

    The following may participate in this call: 

    - private publishing houses 

    - university publishing houses

    - entities whose statutes or governing rules include book publishing and distribution as one of their aims 

  • Any co-edition projects that focus on the city or citizens of Barcelona and fit within the 12 collections the Barcelona City Council Publications Board approved on 29 March 2023 can be submitted for these awards.

  • Yes, as long as the proposal is of interest for the city of Barcelona and the jury deems that it should be approved exceptionally. In this case, please mark the ‘Outside of the catalogue’s collections’ box in the registration form.

  • Not necessarily. Duly explained and justified projects may be submitted. Proposals with a finished sample chapter will be valued.

  • Yes, each applicant may submit a maximum of three projects. Each project will be submitted separately with the corresponding form and documents.

  • No, applications not submitted through the e-Office will not be considered.

  • If the application does not fulfil the requirements set out in article 66 of Law 39/2015 and in this specific call, the concerned party will be informed that they have 10 days to make the relevant amendment or provide the required documents and that, if they fail to do so, their application will be deemed to be withdrawn.

    The required rectifications or amendments must be carried out through Barcelona City Council’s Electronic Register, with details of the register number of the submitted request to be amended and the same recipient (102 Directorate of Editorial Services).

  • The jury will assess the different aspects of the applications in accordance with the following evaluation criteria:

     

    1. Connection between the theme presented and the city or citizens of Barcelona: the relevance of the theme for the city will be assessed in terms of recognition of its figures; celebration of occasions, anniversaries, events and key moments in the city; or focus on territorial, heritage-related, social and historical knowledge of the city.
    2. Assessment of the originality of the work submitted: the degree of innovation of the content will be assessed in terms of its new studies or analyses; its specific, direct contribution to knowledge of a topic, personality or event about which no other content has been published or the published content is out of date; its examination of topics from new perspectives or approaches and its expansion of content about civic issues.
    3. The catalogue and track record of the publishing house that will publish the book: the catalogue and track record of the publishing house will be assessed in relation to the submitted project and the selected collection.

     

    Criteria a) and b) will be scored from 0 to 4 points, while criteria c) will be scored from 0 to 2 points. To be eligible for an award, proposals must score at least 6 points.

  • The awards jury is made up of members of the Barcelona City Council Publications Board, which is named by a decree from the Mayor's Office and consists of a chair, members who represent the spheres over which Barcelona City Council has jurisdiction and a secretary.

    Mayor’s Office Decree ANY2023-35699, of 9 November, updated the composition of the Barcelona City Council Publications Board, which is now made up of the following people:

     

    Chair:

    Xavier Marcé Carol, Councillor for Culture and Creative Industries

     

    Members:

    Gemma Arau Ceballos, Manager’s Office for Territorial Coordination and Proximity

    Maria Buhigas San José, Chief Architect

    Ferran Burguillos Martínez, Manager of the Libraries Consortium

    Núria Costa Galobart, Director of Editorial Services

    Mireia Escobar Costa, Director of Disseny Hub Barcelona

    Sonia Fuertes Ledesma, Commissioner for Social Action

    Oriol Martí Sambola, Manager of ICUB

    Lluís Mauri Roldán, Director of the Mayor's Office

    Àlex Montes Flotats, Foment de Ciutat

    Jaume Muñoz Jofre, Director of Heritage and Memory, ICUB

    Joan Ramón Riera Alemany, Commissioner for Housing

    Pilar Roca Viola, Director of Communication

    Miquel Rodríguez Planas, Manager of Economic Promotion

    Edgar Rovira Sebastià, Cabinet Chief of the First Deputy Mayor's Office

    Montserrat Surroca Comas, Commissioner for Coexistence

     

    Secretary:

    Anna Giralt Brunet, Executive Director of the Directorate for Communication

  • No, the jury’s decisions are not subject to appeal, and its members must decide on any circumstances not provided for in these terms according to their judgement and justify their decision, especially the power to declare the award null and void if they deem there is justification for doing so.

  • The maximum amount allocated to the call is 200,000 euros.

  • The amount that Barcelona City Council undertakes to contribute under the co-edition agreement may not exceed 50% of the budget for each successful proposal.

    This amount shall represent the same percentage of funding for all projects that receive it.  A limit of 40,000 euros has been set for each project that receives an award.

  • Yes, a maximum of two awards may be granted per applicant.

  • No, the number of awards in each category will be determined by the jury, based on the scores obtained according to the evaluation criteria set out in these terms.

  • The selected projects must be printed and delivered within 24 months of the formalisation of the corresponding co-edition agreement.

  • The content and format of the book will be reviewed jointly by the legal person receiving the award and Barcelona City Council, and both parties may contribute improvements – which must be agreed upon – as long as these changes do not constitute a substantial modification of the submitted and selected application.

  • The City Council will pay the selected projects the monetary amount allocated to the co-edition through a bank transfer to the account number detailed in the corresponding fiscal information sheet the award winners must submit. This monetary amount will be paid after the agreement is formalised.

  • The recipient must deliver 300 books to Barcelona City Council and provide justification for expenses for a minimum amount equal to that of the award granted, through the corresponding receipts, within 2 months.

Registration Form