Crisis, science dissemination and R&D investment: solving the equation of the European technological future

corresponding

VICENTE MICOL MOLINA
Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular (IBMC). Universidad Miguel Hernández. Avenida de la Universidad s/n. E-03202 Elche, Alicante. Spain.
Member of AgroFood industry Hi Tech Scientific Advisory Board

Most scientists are only focused on their own research and are not aware about the importance of communicating science properly to society. People don’t really know what we do in our research centers and that our activities represent an investment in the future. In these days when most of the daily news are disappointing in Europe due to the economic situation, especially in the Mediterranean area, scientist must give some hope to the people despite the global tendency to reduce science budgets. It’s very sad the fact that young people know better a famous singer or a soccer player than an important scientist or Nobel Prize. Of course, this is everyone’s fault but the media and tabloid press is mainly to blame for this situation. The last stupid scene performed by a famous teenager singer or just a foolish declaration of a politician receive a big news coverage or become trend topic, but an important scientific advance on a protein involved in cancer metastasis goes unnoticed. I really think that modern society is losing its real values and this is, in part, our fault, but still we can do something about it.

The lack of the transcendence of the scientifi ...