Quotations of Carlos Moedas

The great Finnish author Väinö Linna wrote about Finland saying: ‘’In the beginning there was the swamp, the hoe and Jussi’’. The swamp refers to nature, the hoe is technology, and Jussi is the human-being. -- Carlos Moedas, Informal Competitiveness Council, 4 July 2019.

Carlos Moedas

I feel very privileged to be surrounded by so many excellent innovators and entrepreneurs. Like many of you I was originally trained as an engineer. I was trained to think in numbers. So today, I’d like to begin by sharing some numbers with you. The first is: 9 ... -- Carlos Moedas, Enhancing Women’s Access to Finance and Announcement of the finalists for the EU Prize for Women Innovators 2019, 4 April 2019

Carlos Moedas

Jacques Cousteau once said: “The sea, once it casts its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever”. That’s how I think of the sea, something that captures the imagination. Maybe it’s because I come from Portugal. My ancestors spent their lives gazing out across the ocean. Some wondered what was out there, some took a chance and explored beyond the horizon. And still today, the ocean captures the imagination unlike anything else. -- Carlos Moedas, High-Level Conference Oceans: the Future of the Blue Planet, 19 March 2019

Carlos Moedas

An ocean filled with plastic. Right now, we are in a similar place to where we were 15 to 20 years ago with climate change. We are just beginning to realise the true scale of the problem. And honestly, it’s terrifying. Some projections tell us that by 2050 the ocean could contain more plastic than fish by weight. We know that 8 million metric tonnes of plastic is entering the ocean each year. Let me put that in real terms: it’s the equivalent of people standing side by side across every coastline in the world, and each of those people throwing in five shopping bags full of plastic per year. -- Carlos Moedas, High-Level Conference Oceans: the Future of the Blue Planet, 19 March 2019

Carlos Moedas

Enrico (Letta) asked me to talk to you about science and innovation, and I am very happy because I think it’s a subject that is extremely important for politicians. And for our future politicians, so all of you in this room today. -- Carlos Moedas, Lecture at Sciences-Po, 6 December 2018

Carlos Moedas

You know, I saw this morning that today is the anniversary of the invention of the light bulb. 139 years ago today - almost to the hour - Thomas Edison and his team created the first commercial incandescent light bulb. To build it Edison needed a team of people from all areas: a physicist, a machinist, an engineer, a carpenter, a glass blower, a blacksmith. And when I was thinking about this invention this morning I realised it’s just like the bioeconomy. -- Carlos Moedas, Sustainable and Circular Bioeconomy, the European Way, Brussels, 9 October 2018

Carlos Moedas

I look at the media, or I talk to people and so often all I hear is Doubt. Fear. Disbelief (…) I think we are not "afraid" of new technologies so much as we are afraid of the loss that we think they will bring. Our lives. Our control. Our jobs. -- Carlos Moedas, Horasis global meeting, 6 May 2018

Carlos Moedas

They decided to try something new (…). So what was the result? -- Carlos Moedas, First Gago Conference on European Science Policy, 14 February 2018

Carlos Moedas

It is my real pleasure to welcome you today to Lisbon and to host this event. I am particularly proud of the setting, which could not be more relevant. Portugal's history is so intertwined with the history of the Atlantic Ocean. My first memories as a child are overlooking the ocean with my father hand in hand. My father used to tell me stories about the oceans, scientists and philosophers. … -- Carlos Moedas, Signing of the Belém Statement, 13 July 2017

Carlos Moedas

Harari in his book Sapiens explains why Homo Sapiens was the only human species to survive. Why the Neanderthals disappear. And he says: ‘The wandering bands of storytelling sapiens were the most important force the animal kingdom had produced.’ (…) Collectively we need to be more vocal about our stories. We hesitate too much to tell our stories to the broader public (…). I want to encourage you to tell them to everyone. Tell them to your friends and families. Publish them in newspapers. Write letters to politicians and tell them. Tell them so that everyone can see how important and how beautiful science can be. -- Carlos Moedas, The power of storytelling in science, Tel Aviv, Israel, 17 May 2017.

Carlos Moedas

But why does this matter to us? Why should we care what happens to science in other countries or on other continents? The answer is simple: science belongs to everyone and serves all of us. -- Carlos Moedas, Why I am marching for science, 21 April 2017

Carlos Moedas

The current lack of public and political engagement in fact-based decision-making even has people asking, have we have entered a "post-factual" era of democracy? One in which the public identifies with populist rhetoric and decisions are made based on fears and assumptions, because people feel science and politics have left them behind. -- Carlos Moedas, Europe's voyage towards an open global research area, EuroScience Open Forum, 25 July 2016

Carlos Moedas

Ladies and gentlemen, never underestimate the power of how you are, and will, transform people's lives. It's no small thing to show the world that what's always been done, can be done better. So, spread your story far, wide and fast! Even the smallest of patient innovations can bring hope and happiness! Commissioner Moedas, 13 July 2015, Sharing Solutions, Improving Life through Citizen Innovation

Carlos Moedas

Jocelyn had helped to build a radio telescope that recorded signals from very distant parts of the universe, as well as radio interference from man-made transmitters. One day, she was looking at a 3 mile long print out of all this information, when she found a patchy pulsating signal, which she amplified. Blip. Blip. Blip. The signal was constant and strong. Aliens perhaps? Months later, while still trying to make sense of these pulses, she detected another patchy signal. Blip. Blip. Blip. At 3:00 in the morning, before she left for Christmas holidays, she rushed out to get the cold telescope working for just 5 minutes at full sensitivity. The signal was the same, but faster and from a completely different part of the sky. This couldn't be aliens. Jocelyn had discovered … (To find out what she discovered and why we should) Never forget these stories (go the full speech) Commissioner Moedas, Recognising the Contribution of Women to Science, 24 September 2015

Carlos Moedas

Kept indoors during the French revolutionary years − and in search of a worthwhile distraction − a young Parisian called Sophie Germain turned to studying her father's library. From intellectual works like Montucla's Histoire des Mathématiques, Sophie soon discovered a deep love and a remarkable talent for mathematics. Though her alarmed parents took away her warm clothes, and refused to light a fire in her bedroom, Sophie wrapped herself in blankets and continued to study mathematical theorems into the night by candlelight. (…). Ladies and gentlemen, though every barrier imaginable was thrown in her path, Sophie Germain succeeded through hard work and perseverance: educating herself, hiding her true identity and withstanding the social pressure to conform to traditional expectations. What I take from her story is that there have always been barriers to thought and innovation, but those barriers can be overcome. Commissioner Moedas, Innovation Potential in the Digital Age, 21 October 2015

Carlos Moedas

If you didn't migrate then your father did, and if your father didn't need to move from place to place, then it was only because your grandfather before him had no choice but to go, [to] put his old life behind him in search of the bread that his own land denied him... José Saramago, quoted by Commission Carlos Moedas, Understanding migration: the role of research for policy and society, 4 February 2016

Carlos Moedas