Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

Honourable Chancellors of the Universities of Coimbra, Aveiro and Beira Interior,
Honourable President of the Business Council of Central Portugal
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The 1st Campaign of the Route to Science in which I covered Biosciences and Biotechnology during the last two days, has its final session here, today, in Coimbra University.

This University, to which Portugal is greatly indebted, has provided services of great merit to the community, and many outstanding figures in Portuguese culture, science and economy passed by its classrooms and laboratories.

I am very pleased to attend the closing of this Course in Technological Entrepreneurship, and to warmly applaud the institutions which promoted it.

This Course deals with the right theme and does so correctly.

Portugal needs more entrepreneurship, more scientific and technological innovation and greater cooperation between the dynamic sectors of society. This course has effectively the merit of, simultaneously, disseminate the spirit and the skills of entrepreneurship, be based on a large number of technologies and the result of a partnership between three Universities and a businessmen’s association.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Portugal faces great challenges in global competitiveness.

Globalization brings us important opportunities – increase in economic efficiency, technological progress, investment, developed financial markets and better qualified human resources. But let us not be mistaken. Globalization bears winners but also bears losers.

The answer to the challenge of global competitiveness, at a time when market integration, trade and capital flows are more intense than ever, must not pass by intensive work, cheap labour, and products with a low technological value.

The sole answer which will turn us into winners in global competition is based upon the qualification of the people, on the development of a new portfolio of activities and of products with a high technological content, on scientific investigation, on the dissemination of information technologies and on business innovation.

Science is, simultaneously, an end in itself – since Knowledge cannot but be Man’s supreme ambition – but also an indispensable requisite for the competitiveness of businesses and for the economic and social development of countries.

Since the end of the Eighties that Portugal has been making a significant effort in public investment in R&D, in the support to the advanced training of human resources and in constituting investigation teams.

In spite of this effort, the national performance, when compared with that of the Member States of the European Union, is still insufficient, both as to the level of qualification of the Portuguese, and as to the standards of investigation and of innovation.

A few hurried assessments lead us to the traditional problem of State financing for Research and Development. However, careful reading of the studies of the European Union and OECD show us a different reality. Rather than a low level investment in R&D, the root of our problems lies mainly in the inefficiency of this investment and in the imbalance of its composition (mainly public, with much reduced private investment).

It is true that we must do more in terms of R&D, but, overall, we must do it better.

Much of what we will represent, in the next decades, whilst a people and a nation, will depend upon the effort we place in the areas of science and knowledge and upon our capacity in interpreting the results of investigation in economic and social value.

I am very pleased that this guideline has been gaining a growing recognition in Portugal.

There is, in effect, no margin for waivering. We need a more competitive environment for Investigation, capable of recognizing merit, excellence and capacity to apply knowledge. We need more cooperation between the academic and the entrepreneurial world, in order to exploit the commercial value of the good results of Investigation.

We need critical mass in our R&D units, indispensable for the internationalization of our scientific system.

We need more investigators and more people involved in the activities of the economics of knowledge. We have to obtain a greater share in international networks and to enhance the mobility of the investigators.

I must insist. As in other areas of our society, Portugal has greatly evolved in matters of Research and Development, but we have to do more and do it better.

Portugal has great potential in the area of Science. We have highly qualified scientists with international prestige; we have institutions which are considered excellent as investigators and several successful University-Businesses partnerships, which have shown results in matters of innovation and strengthening of competitiveness.

But neither the mere underlining of our potential nor the rhetoric of the virtues of the knowledge society is sufficient, per se, for our success in today’s global world. Strength of purpose, determination and talent are needed to bring that potential into reality. We must go into action. .

One good way to substantiate that potential is to provide visibility to the good examples and copy them.

This is what I intend doing with the Route to Science.

In this Route to Science I have five main objectives:

Firstly, to set value on the role of scientists in the opening of new paths of knowledge, in substantiating the objectives of sustainable development and in the international assertiveness of our Country.

The women and men of Science, those that chose a life of investigation and of the daily battle to shatter the barriers of knowledge, are crucial to the future of our Country and deserve public recognition.

Portugal needs to get to know its scientists better, to value their role and to appreciate the benefits they render the community. That is the best way to promote scientific culture and to attract the new generations to the dreams of discovery, invention and innovation. We have need to unfold new and many vocations for the activities of research and development.

Secondly, with this Route I intend to show several good examples. Examples that must become known here and abroad. Examples which deserve to be copied.

Examples of a modern and intelligent Portugal that believes it can be a winner in the era of globalization.

Examples of cooperation between Universities, Research and Development Institutions and Businesses, both in the design of research projects and in exploiting and sharing its results.

Examples of sharing networks and transfer of knowledge.

Examples of constituing critical mass, contrary to a numbing fragmentation.

Examples of traditional companies that have become more competitive once technologically based innovation was allowed to penetrate.

Examples of technologically based new businesses, created from scientific research projects.

Examples of good management of intellectual property, of recruitment of risk capital and of efficient marketing.

Thirdly, with this Route I intend to contribute to the strengthening of a new attitude towards research and development which is becoming apparent in Portugal. More than randomness or arbitrariness, the Country requires private investment in R&D, to ensure the reproduction of public investment and to become efficient in the access to international and community sources of direct finance.

For each new euro invested in R&D, we have to be able to publish more scientific tracts, register more patents, enter new contracts of transfer of knowledge, create new products and new technologically based businesses.

Fourthly, with this Route to Science, I intend to call on entrepreneurial culture. In a global world, it is necessary to take risks, to set apart complacency and fear, to embrace change, looked at through the prism of opportunities, and to be daring, through innovation and enterprise..

I want to motivate scientists to include, in the design of their research, the needs of businesses and, also, to create their own businesses. I want to motivate businessmen to develop a culture of giving greater porosity to the good results of scientific research.

I believe in the new generation of entrepreneurs that try to base their competitive advantages on Knowledge. Men and women that study, that fight, that have ambition and belief in themselves and in the Country. Men and women that think and act global.

Lastly, this Route intends to provide visibility to some research, development and innovation niches, in a frame of valuation of human resources, of creating employment and of competitiveness of our economy.

Portugal can derive better benefit from its comparative advantages, from enhancing training and from technological equipment than has happened in some areas. We have, in certain sectors, conditions to consolidate areas of knowledge and opportunity.

This is precisely the case in Biosciences and Biotechnology, the theme which I have chosen for this first campaign of the Route to Science.

Biosciences and Biotechnology constitute an area which represents the new wave of economy based on knowledge, with applications which are fundamental for the improvement of people’s life style in the cases of nourishment, environment and health. On the other hand they possess relevant economic opportunities, with the surge of a new world economy already being talked about – bio-economy.

And this is precisely one of the areas in which Portugal has a potential to be developed.

We have a large number of qualified research units, with graduates and post-graduates with specific skills and appropriate laboratories and equipment.

Finally, Ladies and Gentlemen, I wish to applaud, through the Chancellors of the Universities of Coimbra, Aveiro and Beira Interior, and through the President of the Business Council of Central Portugal, the promoters of the Course in Technological Entrepreneurship.

To the students attending this session, I extend my best wishes in the practical application of the notions of entrepreneurship they have learnt here.