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I am very pleased to pay this tribute to the University of Lisbon, now closing the programme of the Celebrations of its first centenary.

As President of the Republic and as a Portuguese citizen, I wish to show my great pride in the work carried out by the University of Lisbon throughout one hundred years; it is a referenced institution that has been able to find answers and the capacity to adapt itself to the deep changes and uncertainties with which it has been faced, and that is today an example of modernity, vitality and vision.

And this is the reason why, in addition to the respect and recognition for the inestimable contribution that it has granted to Portuguese society, we can equally reassert, with full justice, our trust in the future of Lisbon University and in the role that it will surely continue to perform.

The role of universities amongst us has not been easy throughout all these years. The universities have decisively contributed towards the assertion of a modern State, which has recovered from a great backwardness in educational terms, that is now included in the European Union and is competing in a global borderless market, ready to welcome the influx of people from all over the world.

A country that tried to respond to demands of increased qualification, in which the number of graduates has grown fivefold in two decades alone and that was able to assert itself in the demanding and competitive segment of scientific research and innovation capability.

As I had very recently the opportunity to refer in Stanford, Portugal has been asserting itself internationally due to the quality of its researchers, the excellence of its scientific production and by its full integration in the most representative and prestigious global scientific networks.

Our foremost research centres and universities, of which the University of Lisbon is a fine example, have established programmes for interchange and exchange of experience and knowledge, comprising international networks of university cooperation as a strategic measure for their internationalization.

Also deserving of notice is the effort that the Universities have placed in opening up to society, rendering their wisdom and capability for innovation at the service of the more ambitious corporations, aiding the development of new business and welcoming initiatives that would otherwise have low possibilities of success.

The strengthening of the virtuous connection between the academy, the entrepreneurs and the application of scientific knowledge and technological development to the creation of successful innovations is a path we have to tread more intensely, in order that the great potential of our scientific institutions is transformed into the creation of wealth.

Lisbon University, along with other Portuguese universities, has long commenced this transformation process, which is essential for the Country but that requires time and long term political and financial commitments.

Obtaining high level results demands, in effect, adequate resources and the necessary decision autonomy. Notwithstanding the context of the grievous economic and budgetary crisis, it is worth while noting that, within a framework of open global competition, the excessive lack of resources or these being unforeseeable, could result in a delay that would be difficult to recover.

The autonomy of universities must be preserved, trusting to its governing bodies the responsibility to maintain the strictness demanded in the management of the scarce available resources.

The majority of the university institutions have already proven deserving the trust of the power politic, by showing recognizable and encouraging results.

I have thus decided to award the University of Lisbon, upon the celebration of its centenary, the rank of Honorary Member of the Order of Saint James of the Sword, the highest decoration conferred by the Country to scientific institutions.

I do so with the firm consideration of full justice and certain that the University of Lisbon will be aware how to preserve, in the future, the prestige carried by such a high honorific distinction.

To the scientific and academic community, as well as to all who, one way or another, have contributed with their effort to bring the University of Lisbon to the prestigious position it nowadays occupies, I address my most sincere congratulations.