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In March 2011 I had the opportunity to visit Porto University, for the celebration of its centenary, and which is currently the largest educational and scientific research institution in Portugal.

I am thus very pleased to be able, today, to join the inaugural act of the new facilities of the Faculty of Medicine, of the Faculty of Pharmacology and of the Abel Salazar Institute of Biomedical Sciences.

As emphasized by the respective directors, this was an important investment, both in architectural quality and in technological sophistication.

Universities and scientific research centres are nowadays obliged to compete at more than ever demanding degrees.

For this purpose they require not only to attain a size and a critical mass that allows them to stand shoulder to shoulder with the more ambitious, as well as to have available the adequate resources and the corresponding autonomy of decision.

Throughout the last twenty five years, great efforts were carried out in Portugal in order to promote the development and the access to scientific knowledge, and results are today highly visible.

The investment in scientific knowledge has anyway been that which has achieved greatest consensus in the national political context, in the sense that the various successive governments have assumed this as a strategic objective for the development of our economy

The Country has thus taken a considerable forward leap and has gone from a situation of great backwardness and need, compared with the more developed European countries, to one very approximate to the European average.

This development has been confirmed by very positive assessments carried out by international bodies, such as OECD or the European Commission.

This is also reflected by the large number of prizes that have deservedly recognized the work of Portuguese researchers, be it in national institutions, or in very demanding international environments of worldwide renown.

The Country has progressed in every indicator of scientific knowledge and, particularly, in the investment carried out in research and development and in the training of human resources, including master and doctorate degrees.

Porto University is, doubtlessly, a meaningful instance of the progress that Portugal has achieved in this area, in line with other Portuguese universities that comprise the highest standards within the framework of international assessment.

For a country such as Portugal that, during centuries, was far from prominent in these areas in Europe, this being the cost of its delay in development, the assets accumulated during the last few decades in scientific training and research must be considered as strategic.

The greater a country’s level in scientific development, the greater will be its potential to generate qualified innovation and information and, as such, the greater it’s potential to create wealth and well being for its citizens.

To accept the idea that the economic crisis we are going through is sufficient reason to abandon investment in scientific knowledge would surely constitute a myopic vision.

As I have had the occasion to often underline, the imperatives of containment and rigour in the management and spending of public funds must never endanger either the access of the needier to higher education, or the conditions for maintaining a qualified and driven teaching and scientific staff.

In this sense, it is imperative to identify and invest in those best available, and that the Country cannot afford to lose, possibly for ever, to foreign centres of scientific development.

The necessary conditions must therefore be created in order that the best researchers stay in the Country, a good sign being the expected preparation of the statute of research grant holders that recognizes and values their work.

Worldwide comparison of institutions is totally insensitive and the only means we possess to be included among the best is to continue in the path of excellence, maintaining a driven and highly qualified teaching staff and an internationally recognizable creative scientific production.

I would also add that we should have the ambition to be able to attract scientists and talents from abroad, so as to launch the pillars for the development of new partnerships and of the new productive sectors in Portugal.

I must insist on the ambition to associate with greater firmness scientific research to new sectors of the economy, because this is what Portugal requires: to transform the high cost of the investment carried out in science throughout the last decades into innovation, into marketable products and services and in the creation of wealth and employment.

Portugal is currently approaching the European average with respect to investment in scientific research, but the fact remains that it appears at the trail end of Europe when the issue is the conversion of knowledge into innovation.

It is necessary that economic agents and entrepreneurs come to the centres of scientific knowledge to recruit scientists, and it is just as important that some of the latter become interested in enterprising and, mainly, in researching in fields that may be placed at the service of companies and of Portuguese strategic interests.

The way in which the new building of the Faculty of Medicine was designed, connected with São João Hospital and assigned areas prepared to support research activities, reflects a vision of the future that seems to me particularly adequate, since it comprises greater depth in the interchange between basic research and clinical practice.

As I was able to apprehend during my visit to the facilities, the Faculty of Pharmacology and the Abel Salazar Science Institute will share three new buildings, provided from the start with the more advanced conditions for scientific and academic work.

This partition doubtlessly benefits the interactions that must be established between the faculties and the institutes dedicated to peak sciences as is the case of the Abel Salazar Institute.

I also emphasize the notable integration in this complex of the former chancellery building and its connection to the Porto Hospital Centre, in a harmonious interconnection that binds what seemed separate, in an impossible to refuse invitation to collaborative work.

This is doubtlessly and excellent instance of the advantageous use of European funds, involving a large effort in national participation, for regional development and valuation of our territory. Architects Manuel Gonçalves and José Manuel Soares are to be congratulated.

The inaugural act of new facilities is often seen as a new start, an opportunity for the strengthening of aims and ambitions.

This is the vision that I believe is reflected in this stimulating architectural and space sharing environment, with sophisticated equipment and technology, and which will surely be subject to rigorous management, capable to attract and enhance the human capabilities coming together here.

This virtuous confluence will allow that in this new house a history of productive and successful work be written, which will confirm and expand the collective work that Porto University and each of its institutions commenced writing a century ago, keeping alive, with great merit and persistence, a collective ambition that we must, each day, interpret and materialize.

It is my wish, for this reason, to render tribute to the Faculties of Medicine and Pharmacology and to the Abel Salazar Institute, as well as to Porto University that, under the guidance of its Chancellor, Professor Marques dos Santos, has led this academy with strategic vision and on a firm course, with great reputation achieved in areas that are considered strategic for the future of the Country.

I congratulate all that were responsible for this building and wish the greatest success to the current generation and to those generations that in this place will demonstrate and develop their capabilities and their talent.

To you all I wish a happy and successful New Year.

Thank you very much