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". 

 

The session was attended by the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, the Minister for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Manuel Heitor, the President of the Parliamentary Commission for Education and Science, Alexandre Quintanilha, and members of the five parliamentary parties represented on this commission.

 

Minister Manuel Heitor, in his intervention, referred to four critical messages for the future, which were intended as premises for this Meeting: 1. to align - to respond to the missions and challenges of the National Plan for Science and Technology; 2. to open - to a science open to the community, which dignifies knowledge as a public good; 3. to strengthen - the scientific community, at the level of scientific employment, units and Associate Laboratories; 4. to diversify - the scientific community and the scientific system.

 

Commissioner Carlos Moedas, in turn, presented some of the conclusions of the LAB-FAB-APP report, prepared by the independent high-level group, appointed by the Commissioner and coordinated by Pascal Lamy, which was presented in Brussels on Monday (July 3). The LAB-FAB-APP outlines a vision and a set of strategic recommendations, which aim to enhance the impact of European Union research and innovation in the future, based on the critical analysis of the evaluation of the results of the Horizon 2020 program to build 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. the focus on the scientist, who is the decision maker and innovator; and 3. the missions, in which science is linked to the citizen in which all elements of the chain are aligned. 

 

In the interventions of the members of the Parliamentary Commission for Education and Science, the common denominator was the concern they all expressed about the production of legislation in parliament on a wide variety of subjects, which they believe should be increasingly based on studies produced by the scientific community.

 

After these interventions, the session continued with a technical panel, with the participation of Vladimiro Miranda, from INESC-TEC of the University of Porto, with the communication Trans-Mediterranean Cooperation and Portuguese affirmation with emphasis on Morocco, and Mário Carvalho, from ICAAM of the University of Évora, with the communication Agronomic strategies for the increase of irrigation water productivity in Mediterranean environment.

 

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