Ursula von der Leyens tale ved topmødet for Nobelprismodtagere

Esteemed Nobel Laureates,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is an honour to participate in the first Nobel Prize Summit. For 120 years, the Nobel Prize has been awarded to the brightest minds in each generation - in science, in literature and in politics.

Every Nobel Prize celebrates one leap forward for humanity. From Marie Curie's radioactivity to Emmanuelle Charpentier's genome editing. It's science at the service of humankind.

The pandemic has reminded us how much we need science. In the recent past, some political leaders questioned the value of science and the advice of experts. For me, as a medical doctor by training, it was painful to watch. So I am particularly glad for this opportunity to celebrate the Nobel laureates' contribution, and put renewed trust in science.

This year, the whole world has turned towards science to understand what was happening to us. What was this invisible force that shuttered our lives and our communities. We've turned towards science for advice and for solutions. And science did deliver. In less than ten months after the beginning of the pandemic, the first vaccines were approved.

If today we have hope, it is thanks to men and women who have dedicated their entire life to the laboratory, to a career of hard work and - very often - little recognition. The world owes you.

I will not forget how much the scientific community has helped us in the toughest moments of this year. In the early days of the crisis, I met regularly with a group of scientists, chaired by virologist Peter Piot. Working with them reminded me of a phrase I first heard when I was a medical student in Germany.

It's a quote from Rudolf Virchow, a 19th century physician who authored a seminal study on epidemics and public health. Virchow said that 'politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale.' I can hardly think of a better definition of everything we've done this year. We have relied on science. And we have tried to put politics at the service of science, and public health.

For instance, exactly one year ago Europe contributed to creating the Access to Covid Tools Accelerator. It works for the worldwide development of vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics against COVID-19. COVAX is part of this initiative. It is THE global facility making vaccines available and affordable to all low- and middle-income countries, with financing from high-income countries. Science tells us that we must fight the virus in all corners of the world. This is the only effective strategy against the pandemic. But for this, we need international cooperation. We need politics intended as medicine on a large scale.

Today I would like to tell you three reasons why, and three ways how, our governments need to work with science.

The first reason is: we need science to make sense of the world around us. Second, we need science to guide us. And third, we need science to find new solutions to the challenges of our times, and to fuel innovation for a healthy planet.

Let me begin with the first: Science to make sense of the world.
The pandemic has already killed almost three million people. It's hard to fathom such tragedy, and how fragile our human life can be. But science had warned us. For years, scientists have been telling us that human health, animal health and our planet's health are one. The one health concept. Now, everyone sees this. With the destruction of forests, contacts between wildlife and humans have increased massively. Because of the loss of biodiversity, the so-called 'buffering species' are disappearing. And new pathogens are increasingly crossing over between animals and humans. We ignored the warnings of SARS, MERS and Ebola. So we have to change course, because we have entered the age of pandemics.

During this summit we will hear from Professor Johan Rockström. He is among those who came up with the idea of planetary boundaries.
Nine limits that humanity should not cross, if we don't want to set off irreversible and devastating consequences. Professor Rockström, whose research we have proudly funded, is now telling us that we have crossed four of these nine boundaries. So we must act now, before it's too late. And Europe is indeed taking action.

It is on this basis that we have built our European Green Deal. It is because we trust science, that we have committed to cutting by at least 55% our CO2 emissions already in this decade. And to protecting at least 30% of land and sea here in Europe. We now want to broker the same ambition at global level, at the next UN Biodiversity Summit in Kunming. This will have to be like COP21 was for climate. A Paris-style agreement for biodiversity.

Science is helping us make sense of a changing world. We must listen to science. And Europe is listening.

This leads me to my second point. We need science to guide our daily work. Europe is working very closely with the three international panels, that bring science to the table of policy-makers:

IPCC for climate
IPBES for biodiversity
and IRP for resources and the circular economy.

Their advice has been essential to build an international consensus around our planet's state of health.

It is now time to find ways for these platforms to work better together. Because everything is connected. One health, one planet, one humanity. So we must also join up our work on climate, on biodiversity and on circularity. For a more effective multilateralism, guided by science.

My third and final point is that we need science to innovate and find solutions for the challenges of our age. This means that scientists must have the resources they need to do their job. Think, for instance, about vaccines based on messenger RNA.

Today, it's a multi-billion dollar idea. But that wasn't always the case. Back in the 1990s the mother of mRNA vaccines, Professor Katalin Karikó, had a hard time finding money for her research. She recently recalled, and I quote:

'Every night I was working: grant, grant, grant. And it came back always no, no, no.'

But she never gave up. And with time, other researchers joined her fight. Among them the BioNTech team, who could count on several grants from the European Union. Our scientists must have the freedom to explore the frontiers of knowledge. And for this, governments must support 'pure science' and basic research. This is the foundation of human progress.

At the same time, it is also vital to help bring discoveries from the laboratory to the market. Alongside pure science, we need trans-disciplinary science - connecting researchers with businesses, but also with customers and civil society. It is with this in mind, that we have developed our new research programme, Horizon Europe. It's the world's largest, publicly funded transnational research and innovation programme.

With Horizon Europe we will also launch new innovation missions, which aim to transform the way we live and do business on this planet.

We envisage five missions:

- Beating cancer
- Making Europe climate resilient
- Restoring our oceans and waters
- 100 climate neutral cities by 2030
- Caring for our soils

Each one of them will tackle a great challenge of our times. Every mission will fund research, but it will also strive to bring new discoveries to fruition, in a participative approach with citizens.

Last but certainly not least: Besides the technological transformation, we need a cultural transformation, too. And for this, we need to be much better at bringing science into every home and every community. We must invest in scientific education, at all levels. We must help our children understand the pandemic, how it started and how we can stop it. We must help them understand how our planet works and how to save it, with climate education in every school. A widespread scientific culture is the only antidote against a mentality that sees conspiracies everywhere.

So yes, our democracies need science. And yes, we need a new enlightenment. And this is why this Nobel Prize Summit is such an important initiative. Nobel laureates are humanity's best and brightest. The stalwarts of scientific culture. We need you to help our kids understand this complex and beautiful world of ours. We need you on television, on our social media feeds, into our homes. A new enlightenment begins there.

So thank you to the Nobel foundation for your work.

And may this Nobel Prize Summit be the first in a long series.

Thank you very much for your attention.