"I believe that science has a transformative role to play in the development of our societies. I must take this opportunity to underline the importance of communicating facts, not fiction and fake news, in this day and age," the Prime Minister said in his opening address. He explained that one of the first steps taken by the Government was to increase funding for science and innovation and research and development. "Next year we will increase the budget to more than 550 million, which means that we will almost double funding for research and science in three years. Society can only develop by investing in knowledge and we will continue to do so," said Prime Minister Golob.

He also highlighted the importance of good science communication, using climate change as an example. “It is one thing to have a scientific fact, but it is another thing to be able to communicate that fact to the general public in order to get their support, along with the support of politicians and communicators. We know the facts about climate change. The question is whether we are able to communicate them successfully to the general public," the Prime Minister stressed, recalling that five years ago, there was a lot of talk about the climate issue during the European elections. “But most of this has evaporated, even though it is absolutely clear to everyone that we must be resolute in tackling the climate crisis and that we must continue to take action," the Prime Minister was clear, while expressing his concern about the future of the green transition at European level: "Because many of the factors that have a negative impact on the climate have not been properly communicated to the public, we are on the verge of risking that European elections could halt the green transition due to public opposition." In his address, Prime Minister Golob also mentioned the issue of European agriculture, stressing the importance of successful communication: "The industrial giants have been redirected by the energy crisis, but in agriculture, things are still not moving in the right direction, and this is largely due to unsuccessful communication. Our food systems will play a key role in solving global problems. If we don't communicate successfully with society, we cannot change the way it works."

Finally, he highlighted the good examples of pharmaceutical and aerospace science in Slovenia. In the former, we have a strong ecosystem linking university education, research and business communities, which shows that even small countries can be leaders in this field. He said that he was also very proud of the very rapid and excellent development of Slovenia's aerospace industry. Slovenia will soon sign a membership agreement with the European Space Agency and plans to set up a centre of excellence that will use satellite imagery to help other countries assess the state of their waters. "Being able to come up with big ideas with a big impact on other people is really what science is all about," the Prime Minister concluded.