The AITEX 2026 Business Awards have closed their registration period with 119 candidacies, coming from 22 provinces and 11 autonomous communities. These figures confirm that the call has consolidated its national reach and has become a benchmark for recognizing innovation and sustainability in the business and entrepreneurial fabric.
Participation has grown by 18% compared to the previous edition, which gathered 101 candidacies, and all modalities are up. The AITEX Entrepreneurship Award is the one that grows the most: it goes from 33 to 44 proposals, a 33% increase, and is once again the category with the highest participation. It is followed by the AITEX Textile Award, which goes from 38 to 40 candidacies, and the AITEX Cosmetics Award, which rises from 30 to 35 (a 17% increase). The proposals presented reflect the talent and innovative capacity of the business and entrepreneurial fabric throughout the country.
Call with national projection
One of the most outstanding data of this edition is its reach outside the Valencian Community: 68 candidacies, 56% of the total, come from other autonomous communities. The remaining 51 calls are from the Valencian Community. Barcelona once again leads the ranking by provinces, with 27 proposals. It is followed by Valencia and Alicante, with 25 each, and Madrid, with 13. The call has also received projects from Seville, Valladolid, Murcia, Asturias, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Pontevedra, Malaga, Granada, Las Palmas, Huesca, and Burgos, among other provinces.
This edition has also registered a strong increase in participation in the Valencian Community, with 50% more candidacies than in 2025, while maintaining the support of the rest of the country.
Evaluation phase begins
Once the registration period has closed, three juries, one per modality, will evaluate the proposals and select five finalists in each category. The juries are made up of top-level representatives from the textile, cosmetic, academic, institutional, and business fields. To score the candidacies, they will take into account the value proposition of each project, its degree of innovation or environmental impact, the results obtained, its socioeconomic footprint, and the quality of the proposal presented. The names of the finalists will be announced soon, as well as the date of the 2026 awards gala.
The AITEX Business Awards were created in 2018 to boost the business fabric, both in the textile sector and in other sectors. Their objective is to help companies be more competitive, find solutions to new challenges, and promote industrial growth. Since then, they recognize the work of companies and entrepreneurs and contribute to their development and projection in the fields of innovation, sustainability, and research.
With these awards, AITEX reaffirms its commitment to companies and entrepreneurs who are committed to innovation and sustainability as drivers of competitiveness.