I truly believe in the fantastic capabilities of the upcoming generations, the so-called Zoomers and members of the Generation Alpha.  I am sure that they will be much better, much more informed, much more curious, much more intrigued than we are to keep leading this beautiful country of ours, forward.

The investment in education, undoubtedly the most important element for the success of any country, has been unprecedented in the last years.   Curiosity, creativity and a spirit of enterprise is also on the rise in our youths and young people.  I believe that we have an exciting future ahead of us and the upcoming generations have an extraordinary role to play in that successful future.

Esplora, the interactive science centre, has set up a beautiful calendar of events coinciding with the days during which kids are at home for the Christmas holidays and this has been branded as the "Christmas Science Advent Calendar" with 25 days of digital scientific activities.  The events are all science-based and aimed at making the younger generation be more attracted to science and the world of technology in an entertaining manner.  Entrance for kids is free of charge until the end of January and the special events go on until next Wednesday.

In all 4,000 kids have attended one of the events in those Christmas holidays.  I have attended some of them myself, with my own family and we all enjoyed what was in store. Also, through Esplora’s Facebook page and through its Tik tok account, 70,000 people were reached and the feedback has been positive.  Also, two noteworthy digital competitions – the Problem Solving Competition and the Math Snack Challenge Competition - have generated a lot of engagement from the public.  One can look them up on the Esplora Facebook page.

This is all thanks to the extraordinary management and staff at Esplora who are so good at what they do.

Why are we doing all this effort to reach the upcoming generations and attract them to the sciences and technology?

The reason is very simple.  We have to be innovative, we have to research new solutions, we have to come up with new ideas. 

I am totally convinced that Gen Z and Gen Alpha will be the most creative generations of Maltese people ever.

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One of the first and main things researchers need is financing. Without finance and money, it is very difficult to proceed and progress, particularly so in research. As we all know, research does not necessarily mean  obtaining the expected positive results or at least not straightaway and this makes investing in research more challenging than investing in other areas.

The European Union has been very important in providing funds for research at a European level.  The most famous funding program at European level is Horizon 2020. This is the EU's main instrument to support Research and Innovation. I was very pleased to see that our participation in Horizon 2020 has increased. 26 grant agreements were signed with 26 Maltese participants. The total of these agreements amounts to €5.7 million, which will go to Maltese entities and researchers.
Recently the Horizon Unit within the Malta College of Science and Technology (MCST) - which does an excellent job - has launched a new awards scheme in order to recognize the excellent research work being done here in Malta while encouraging other participants to apply. Several webinars have also been prepared so that MCST promotes the latest calls for the Horizon 2020 Program, which recently came to an end this week.

This is all very important. At the same time, preparations are underway, of course, for the new Framework Program, Horizon Europe, which will start in 2021. In recent months, MCST has not only been following the developments of the new Program by providing feedback on the proposed work programs, but it has also prepared a consultation to select which Partnerships Malta shall participate in. Again, congratulations to all who are doing all this work.

I was also pleased to see that during the year 2020, MCST was also innovative in its work in the light of the pandemic, as work continued on several fronts thanks to IT. For example, in early 2020, MCST conducted the first R&I monitoring report, consolidating the monitoring system established in 2018-2019. Work has also been done on the preparation of the Smart Specialization Strategy (RIS3) 2021-2027. The full launch of the public consultation on RIS3 took place in October 2020. It is planned that this strategy should be finalised in early 2021. This will pave the way for Structural Funds and other sources of funding to support innovation in selective clusters of thematic areas where it is felt that there is the greatest potential for innovation to take place.

This and much more will continue throughout the coming year.

Now that, for the first time in history, there is a new Ministry completely focused on Research and Innovation I believe that we will start to see very important results and this will also lead to a change in the perspective of how we look at this sector. A number of important meetings have already taken place with researchers and scientists who all had very important suggestions to move forward. We listen in order to take decisions and act accordingly. I enjoyed reading the beautiful words of the Chamber of Scientists who had a positive speech about the Ministry itself and the first days of working in the sector.

This year, 2021 will be the year of a new beginning after the challenges brought about by the pandemic. We are committed to the economic recovery and social strengthening of our country - which must have at its core, the strengthening of a robust innovation ecosystem in our country.

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It is thanks to the result of research that finally we have a vaccine against COVID-19.

It is the fruit of the Government's forward planning that the first 10,000 doses of the vaccine arrived in our country immediately and thus launched a vaccination campaign for our country.

It is crucial that we follow the advice of the health authorities so that, without any delay, our country can take the path of post-COVID normalcy.

As Prime Minister Robert Abela said, we must be the first country to recover economically while maintaining the health of our people.

I take the opportunity of thanking all the frontliners who worked so hard and so much for the good of our country.

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I take the opportunity of wishing the staff at The Malta Independent and all readers a happy and prosperous new year!