Science, Europe and the Mediterranean at the Science Meeting 2017

The last day of the Science Meeting 2017, July 5, opened with a plenary session on "Science, Europe and the Mediterranean". 

 

Speakers at the session included the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, the Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Education and Science, Alexandre Quintanilha, and members of parliament from the five parties represented on the committee.

 

Minister Manuel Heitor, in his speech, referred to four critical messages for the future, which were intended as premises for this meeting: 1. Align - to respond to the missions and challenges of the National Science and Technology Plan; 2. - Open - to a science open to the community, which dignifies knowledge as a public good; 3. - Strengthen - the scientific community, in terms of scientific employment, units and Associate Laboratories; 4. - Diversify - the scientific community and the scientific system.

 

For his part, Commissioner Carlos Moedas presented some of the conclusions of the LAB-FAB-APP report, drawn up by the independent high-level group appointed by the Commissioner and coordinated by Pascal Lamy, which was released in Brussels on Monday (July 3). The LAB-FAB-APP outlines a vision and a set of strategic recommendations aimed at boosting the impact of European Union research and innovation in the future, based on a critical analysis of the evaluation of the results of the Horizon 2020 program for the construction of a post-2020 program. In his speech, the Commissioner highlighted three recommendations contained in this report: 1. looking at the whole and not the parts; 2. focusing on the scientist, who is the decision-maker and innovator; and 3. the missions, in which science is linked to the citizen and all the elements of the chain are aligned. 

 

In the speeches by the members of the Parliamentary Committee on Education and Science, the common denominator was the concern they all expressed about the production of legislation in parliament on the most diverse subjects, which they believe should be increasingly based on studies produced by the scientific community.

 

After these speeches, the session continued with a technical panel, featuring Vladimiro Miranda, from INESC-TEC at the University of Porto, who presented Trans-Mediterranean cooperation and Portuguese affirmation with an emphasis on Morocco, and Mário Carvalho, from ICAAM at the University of Évora, who presented Agronomic strategies for increasing the productivity of irrigation water in a Mediterranean environment.

 

The final speeches of the session were made by Nart Dohjoka, from the Science Diplomacy Program of the Royal Scientific Society of Jordan, and by Minister Manuel Heitor, who closed the session.