I am very honoured to be here at the Solemn Academy of the University of Primorska on the very special occasion of its 20th anniversary
It is a real pleasure to be with you to celebrate all that your young, innovative, and dynamic university has already achieved, and to look forward to a very promising future.
The intense connection of your university to your innovation ecosystem, and the emphasis on a challenge-based interdisciplinary approach in teaching and research have certainly been and will continue to be the key to success.
The University of Primorska is rightly recognised as a key player among innovative universities in Europe. This is evidenced by two important milestones:
- joining as an associate partner to the European University
Transform4Europe
- and being selected as the Slovenian member of the European
Network of Innovative Higher education Institutions.
These two milestones indeed seem very faithful to your innovative and creative spirit. Another success that I would like to highlight is, of course, the InnoRenew Centre of Excellence, which your university coordinates. I want to congratulate you for the work you have done so far on
renewable materials and healthy environments, and for the true ecosystem that you have created. InnoRenew is considered a true European success story for connecting academia to industry, for the direct benefits of our economy and citizens!
These multiple achievements of the University of Primorska are very meaningful to me: your success is European. Yours is the story of an 2/4 institution whose ambition has materialised by committing to Europe and seizing opportunities across borders. This is also a story of a university that ties deeper into its surrounding community, into its ecosystem. This resonates with my vision for higher education, research and innovation in Europe.
A vision we can achieve together using the transformative potential of European initiatives and funding opportunities. After all, the European project has always been about boosting our ambition, pooling resources, striving for more, and innovating together. And this is exactly what we have put at the core of the European Strategy for Universities and the New European Innovation Agenda – two initiatives very dear to my heart.
The European strategy for universities promotes the capacity of higher education institutions to engage in transnational cooperation. It seeks to prepare students with skills that match the current and future needs of their innovation ecosystems, especially transversal
competences such as green, digital, and entrepreneurial skills. Let me give you just a few examples:
First, the strategy calls for the integration of innovative approaches to learning and teaching, such as ‘living labs’. This will enhance students’ critical thinking, problem-solving and entrepreneurial skills. Second, we strive to boost the Erasmus+ traineeships abroad, with
up to 100,000 trainees every year, in start-ups and entrepreneurial organisations.
Third, we support the development of incubators within universities in close cooperation with the entrepreneurial sector. We want to help student entrepreneurs grow their ideas into businesses.
At the same time, the New European Innovation Agenda aims to lead this new wave of innovation that is on its way.
We must be ready for deep tech innovation, rooted in cutting edge science, technology, and engineering. The Innovation Agenda will help Europe develop new technologies to tackle society’s most pressing challenges and bring them to market. But for that we also need to further develop our talent base. And this will be the task of the Deep Tech Talent initiative. It aims to train one 3/4 million talents in advanced technological fields by 2025 with the support of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.
The EIT will update its talent and skills development programmes to match the needs of deep technology areas, ranging from new materials and synthetic biology to clean technologies. In this process, larger scale companies as well as other industry representatives will inform curricula to ensure that it responds to changing labour market
needs.
Another example - we are creating opportunities for researchers and innovators to gain work experience in successful innovative start-ups and companies. The EIC and EIT develop an innovation intern scheme to create these opportunities for over 600 researchers by
2024, and this is to be extended to EIT identified students and
graduates in the future.
I am glad that we have created the European strategy for universities and the Innovation Agenda together with the higher education and research sector. We are now fully engaged, together again, in the implementation of these forward-looking policy initiatives.
And when I meet an institution like the University of Primorska, when I am given the opportunity to observe not only your achievements but also your energy for the future, I am confident that we will succeed in achieving our vision. All this of course with the support of the EU and
our Member States.
The support at EU level has always been key. Support provided through our programmes, like Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe. Through our policies. And through institutions, like the European
Research Council, that make sure our funding gets in the right hands, and give us so much feedback to improve our policies. Indeed, we have Professor Bourguignon here today. He, too, is emblematic of the success we are celebrating.
Dear Jean-Pierre, your intelligence, dedication, and commitment during your seven years as President of the European Research Council, serving and shaping excellence in European science, have been an inspiration.
You are a brilliant mathematician, and it seems most appropriate that today the Honorary doctorate of the University of Primorska will be given to you by another mathematician, Rector Klavdija Kutnar, also 4/4 committed, through this innovative institution, to make European
science flourish.
The success of European higher education, of European science, and of our European way of life, have always hinged on a society that connects knowledge and the power to use it, the freedom to pursue the right questions, and to bring the answers to an ever-greater community.
This has been the example of Jean-Pierre’s leadership at the European Research Council, and it is this same example of success that we can all glimpse here at the University of Primorska.
So, I wish the whole community of the University of Primorska a beautiful 20th anniversary, as beautiful as the future you are building, for yourselves and for everyone in Europe.
Thank you very much
