Inauguration ceremony of Diana Morant, Minister of Science and Innovation of the Government of Spain

Ladies and gentlemen, today I present myself and I stand before you with two objectives:

To express my gratitude for their trust and to convey to them my firm commitment to a vital challenge: to prioritize science and innovation as a lever for the recovery of Spain.

First of all, now and always, I want to thank you.

Thank you, President Pedro Sánchez, for trusting this young mayor for such a large company. I accept the challenge with humility, pride and passion.

Thanks also to this progressive government for contributing to the visibility of women (also in science), for promoting our access to decision-making spaces, for its constant work for real equality in all areas of life. The telecommunications student that I once was, very alone in an eminently boys’ classroom, would also have thanked her.

Thank you also, Mr Sánchez, for your commitment to municipalism in this renewal of government. For people who do not know me, I feel privileged to have spent these last 6 years working hard to improve the quality of life of my fellow citizens, as mayor of Gandia, a town distinguished by the Government as a City of Science and Innovation, and which is structuring its recovery on the axis of economic and social innovation.

Mayors and mayors have the opportunity to feel, very closely, the problems, needs and dreams of the people. We can touch them, see them, smell them…. And we feel obliged to give them an answer, sometimes, although it does not compete with us. In my city, and in line with the Valencian Community, we have managed to sow a trajectory of collective successes thanks to a permanent social dialogue. With the sum of diverse looks, we are generating an innovative and prosperous ecosystem where its inhabitants can be and give the best of themselves. With this same attitude, vocation and experience, I now agree to make the leap to another dimension: the Government of Spain.

Before everyone else, I am today marking my commitment as the new Minister of Science and Innovation. I am aware that I come to this portfolio at a key time, when a global pandemic places value on science and innovation, making two certainties clear:

• One, science is the answer. Vaccination is the first step towards recovery and is trusted by the vast majority of the Spanish population, 83%, according to a recent survey by the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology. Society is relying increasingly on science. A growing social support that adds up and that we must take advantage of.
• And two; the second evidence is the Covid-19 crisis, and innovation is the gaze. Innovation is the urgent approach to tackling the ecological and digital transition, the co-design of a more prosperous and fair future. The pandemic earthquake has raised new questions that require innovative, creative, sustainable and collaborative solutions.

This government has been able to read the messages and is increasingly and continuously prioritizing science and innovation. It is valuing them in the only way that politics truly values things: naming them and equipping them with structures, instruments and resources. Today I join a Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities with an historic budget, 60% higher than the previous one, which is also supported by the European Recovery Plan. This is an unprecedented opportunity to build a better future through the consolidation of investment in R+D+I, key to facing the great challenge of climate change.

For all these reasons, I am assuming my role today with a great sense of responsibility. It is an honor for me to succeed Minister Pedro Duque, whom I thank for his wise advice and with whom I know I will count to make the best possible transition.

I want to continue with its objective of increasing resources for the main strategic lines, of improving the instruments to promote the transfer of knowledge and strengthen coordination between administrations.

Like Duque, I am also aware that science requires a stable political commitment, a great country agreement. Therefore, I will continue on its path to unite social and political consensus in the Pact for Science and Innovation. Listening, dialogue, sharing, adding up … that’s the way.

As a new minister, I would now like to address those who will be my key interlocutors:

To the enterprising and committed people, to the innovative and involved companies that bring value to society. We have a joint mission and, from the administration, we have to be facilitators and create new collaboration mechanisms.

To our researchers and researchers, scientists and scientists. Your talent and dedication are our most powerful instrument, the pillar of the revival of our country. We know that. And we must show that we know that. Therefore, we will continue to be committed to improving your working conditions, to achieving greater professional stability.

To those people who are starting out, to the younger ones, and also to those who have had to go to work in other countries… You are our future. And that is not enough to say, it must also be demonstrated. Therefore, from the public administration we must be able to create opportunities, to retain talent and to give you back the illusion. That’s going to be a major mission in this ministry.

I want to listen also and especially to women, who have been invisible in science for centuries. The story is indebted to you. At the head of the ministry, my predecessor, Pedro Duque, has also opted for equality with actions such as the constitution of the Working Group on Gender Equality in R+D+I funds. In this line, we will continue to work for a more just and egalitarian society.

Last but not least, I want my direct and daily interlocutor to remain the citizen. The ministerial chair cannot be far from the street. I intend to continue keeping the pulse of the problems and concerns of the people, since technology and research are only instruments, means, at the service of their needs. But above all, I would like to contribute to empowering people for social innovation, essential to face the challenges posed by post-Covid society. We all innovate every time we come up with an idea and put it at the service of a common good. We are all called to innovate to find creative and sustainable solutions. That is the invitation proposed by the European Union from the New Bauhaus, a platform that builds bridges between the arts and sciences, between all disciplines, with the desire to add diverse perspectives that together build a greener, more inclusive and beautiful future, that leaves no one behind.

I join in this great challenge. To this great challenge I invite you to join. I hope it will be a fruitful pleasure to make the journey together. Thank you very much.