16.01.2024
To achieve success, European science and innovation must have an opportunity to experiment more. In that way they will be successful in the competition with the USA and China. That was the message delivered by Prime Minister Acad. Nikolai Denkov within the framework of the World Economic Forum in Davos where he joined a discussion Europe’s Rush to Innovate. The Prime Minister pointed out that in both science and innovation the possibility to conduct more experiments, even if most of them are failures, is essentially important for the final result. Hence the gradual reconsideration of the old idea that funding is tied up with fast success.
The other key factor, in the view of Prime Minister Acad. Nikolai Denkov, is the science-business partnership. Further, the Prime Minister said that it is of great importance not to oppose fundamental science to applied science – a principle that they realized and applied in the USA faster than in Europe. “They have promoted their research ecosystem science into innovation faster than Europe,” Acad. Nikolai Denkov pointed out and added that Europe should develop in this area at a faster pace.
Participants in the discussion were: Iliana Ivanova, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth; José Luis Escrivá, Minister for Digital Transformation of Spain; Prof. Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council (ERC); and Dimitri de Vreeze, Chief Executive Officer of a Dutch multinational corporation specializing in solutions for health and nutrition. All participants agreed that Europe should encourage its talents to stay and that more efforts should be made to attract innovative minds and to be still more hospitable to science.
