The award was received by a multidisciplinary team lead by the Warwick University. The award was in the category of the Horizon Awards given to those who open new directions and possibilities in their field through innovative scientific breakthroughs.

The Ice team is a multidisciplinary collaboration between researchers and industrial partners, which now has been recognised for breakthroughs with a direct impact in the development of emerging medicines.

Dani Ballesteros explains that their work is unique, not only for the diversity of the species investigated but also for the connections that they have established between the atmospheric sciences, the evolution and distribution of plants, and the cryopreservation of cells.

Daniel Ballesteros is biologist and PhD by the Universitat de València since 2008. He is specialized in botany, vegetal physiology, cryobiology, and conservation biology, he is full-time trainee lecturer in the Universitat de València since 2021. During his postdoctoral period (2009-2021) he has done research at several leading international centres for plant germplasm, such as the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew (United Kingdom) with the professor Hugh Pritcahrd; the National Center for Generic Resources Preservation in Fort Collins (USA), with the doctor Christina Walters; the KwaZulu Natal University (South Africa) with the professors Patricia Berjak and Normal Pammenter; and the Center for Research and Conservation of Wildlife in Cincinnati (USA) with the doctor Valerie Pence.

His research work aims to reveal the fundamental basis of tolerance to dissection and low temperatures stress in seeds of different physiology and other propagules of plants (spores, pollen) particularly in relation to their long-term conservation (including cryo-preservation). Also, he is interested in the variation of longevity in plant propagules, from fern spores as a single-cell model to more complex systems. This studies usually require the use of structural and biophysical approaches. A multidisciplinary and unique technique in biology that has become a world reference.