The opening of a research centre with the characteristics and the size of the Champalimaud Centre would, anywhere in the world, be considered as an absolutely notable undertaking. The fact that it occurs amongst us, in Portugal, must be a reason of particular pride for all the Portuguese.

It is a happy coincidence that the opening of this great undertaking takes place on the date that we celebrate the centenary of the proclamation of the Republic in Portugal.

The architectural boldness of the building and the attention paid to its functionality are the visible signs of the excellence of the work that will be carried out here, a work of enormous reach in the area of research on cancer and the neurosciences.

Malign sicknesses and those of the nervous system are two of the greatest scourges of Humanity. Portugal enjoys, from today, a centre that, together with those we already have, can place us at the head of the world’s biomedical research.

The Champalimaud Research Centre should, as I have already stated, fill with pride all the Portuguese, It will doubtlessly by a source of attraction for talents from all over the world. Several international institutions are already viewing this undertaking with enormous admiration and respect.

In one of the award ceremonies of the Champalimaud Prize for Vision, I had the occasion to state that «one of the prime duties of States and society is to give value to the role of scientists in the opening of new paths of knowledge».

In spite of its worldwide projection the Research Centre of the Champalimaud Foundation shall be a nucleus for the settling of Portuguese researchers and will provide services for the benefit of the national community. This union with the assistance component, to which are obliged all research centres with a clinical constituent, subjects it to an increased demand in the choice of the means, the people and the methods and imposes on it a particular ethical and civic responsibility.

All the tasks that the Centre proposes to carry out it will surely achieve. Viewing the building is, in itself, convincing that this will be a House of great deeds. Its imposing architecture well reflects the will of its mentor, António Champalimaud, and the enormous drive, deserving of the admiration of us all, of the person responsible for this undertaking, Dr. Leonor Beleza.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The Foundation awards, annually, the Champalimaud Prize for Vision, a ceremony to which I have always had the pleasure to become associated.

I congratulate the 2010 laureates, Anthony Movshon and William Newsome, for their research work in the investigation of the mechanisms of vision perception and of the cerebral mechanisms involved in the consciousness of seeing.

Whilst congratulating the prize winners, I equally wish to salute the institutions where their research was carried out, the University of New York and Stanford’s Howard Hughes Institute.

The Champalimaud Foundation, already internationally recognized by the scale of its Prize in the field of vision, has now available a physical undertaking that equals the stature of the nobleness and strength of purpose of its founder.

The commissioning of this Research Centre will be an important symbol for the development of our scientific system. But much more important than this, it will be an enormous source of hope for millions of people around the world.

This Foundation, incorporated in the Centre that has now risen in Lisbon, is an example of altruism and of drive for the common good, which we should estimate and cultivate. I am convinced that the Portuguese will know how to honour and value this Centre that is also the monument to the memory of a man..

I wish the greatest of successes to the Champalimaud Foundation and to its Research Centre, for the benefit not just of Portugal but of all Humanity.