“Whereas the EU strongly supports European scientists and their scientific research, Member States do not always give research the priority it deserves on their financial agenda. It is often the case that researchers heavily depend on European funding or private funding as national State funding is insignificant. Investing in research is all about making standards of living better for people and consequently Member States must also provide funding.”
PN MEP Therese Comodini Cachia made these remarks during an evaluation meeting at the end of the MEP-Scientist Pairing Scheme organised by the European Parliament Scientific Foresight Unit (STOA) in collaboration with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) for which she was selected as a participating MEP. The MEP-Scientist Pairing Scheme aims at enhancing mutual understanding and establishing long-term cooperation between MEPs and researchers.
No Maltese scientist participated in the scheme and MEP Comodini Cachia has asked the organising committee to facilitate the participation of Maltese scientists and encouraged Maltese scientists to apply.
As a member of the Legal Affairs Committee MEP Comodini Cachia represents the EPP group on the Working Group on Legal Questions related to the Development of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence which is expected to present to the European Parliament a report on the legal and ethical issues related to robotics and artificial intelligence which may need to be addressed through legislation.
Under the scheme MEP Comodini Cachia was paired with Dr Maya Dimitrova an Associate Professor from the Institute of Systems Engineering and Robotics at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences working on Artificial or Hybrid Intelligence. At the end of the week she commented “I have found Dr Dimitrova’s factual information on how robotics and artificial intelligence systems are being developed and used to facilitate communication and learning for children with learning disabilities to be very helpful for my work on the Working Group on Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. I encourage Maltese scientists to seek out opportunities such as these so that while contributing towards policy, they too will sensitise politicians about the importance of investing in research.”
In the past weeks, Comodini Cachia has visited a number of research laboratories at the University of Malta where ongoing research is carried out to address health issues which are common amongst Maltese citizens. This research is heavily dependent on European Union funding and private funding. In her visit she called for a significant increase in the funding that is made available by the government for research indicating that the researchers’ work is too important for our health and consequently ought to be a priority for any government.