Speech at a Science Foundation Ireland event
China World Hotel, Beijing, China, 9th December 2014
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Is mór an phléisiúr a bheith anseo libh ar fad i mBéising, ag caint faoi chúrsaí eolaíochta, teicneolaíochta agus go háirithe talmhaíochta, ar seo, mo chéad chuairt sa tSín mar Uachtarán na hÉireann.
It is a great pleasure to be here this morning during my first visit to China as President of Ireland. I would like to pay particular tribute to the Chinese Academy of Sciences represented here today by Professor Tan Tieniu.
I have recently been reading about Augustine Henry, the renowned Irish botanist with a great love of Chinese flora, who brought to the attention of the western world the abundance and beauty of Chinese flora. That, of course, was in the late 19th century. Earlier this year Professor Jun Xia, from Wuhan University, received the International Hydrology Prize-Volker Medal at the Dooge-Nash International Hydrology Conference in Dublin. This prize is named after Irish scientists Professor Jim Dooge and Professor Eamon Nash who established the key role of hydrology in many critical, global issues relating to environment, ethics, food, energy and the developing world. It is a reminder of the long connection between our two nations in the field of science and innovation, and of how that relationship continues today.
The call by President Xi Jinping for China’s economy of the future to be based on “innovation, innovation, innovation” resonates with Ireland’s own National Strategy. In this we are reflecting our shared belief in the possibilities that the innate inventiveness and creativity of the Chinese and Irish peoples can offer.
I would like to thank Professor Tan Tieniu for the very interesting explanation he provided of the collaborations between the Chinese Academy of Sciences and University College Dublin. It is inspiring to see the collaboration and work of so many young and talented science and technology researchers from Ireland and China on display today.
This, the first State visit by a President of Ireland to China in eleven years, follows a very successful and historic visit by the now President Xi Jinping to Ireland, and also follows Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s visit to China two years ago.
In Ireland we are proud of our reputation for creativity, for originality and for our unique and imaginative view of the world. However, our extraordinary successes in the sphere of literature and the arts has, perhaps, eclipsed the significant impact which Irish men and women have also had on the world of science and on the shaping of the technological age in which we live today. As a nation, however, we can take equal pride in our proven aptitude for physics, for chemistry, for technological development; and in our great ability to push the boundaries of these fields outwards.
Bell’s Theorem, Boyle’s Law, the development of fibre optics in communication, the splitting of the atom, the Beaufort Scale, and many other landmarks in the expansion of scientific knowledge owe their success to the innovation and originality of talented Irish scientists.
For example, George Boole, who was born in England but who was appointed as the first professor of mathematics at University College Cork, invented a system of algebra which is fundamental to digital logic, binary notation, and computer programming. Boole has a profound connection to the Republic of China. His great-granddaughter, Joan Hinton, was a physicist who moved to China in 1948, working with Song Qingling and becoming one of the People’s Republic of China’s first foreign citizens of foreign origin.
As a nation which leads in the manufacture of electronics, the audience here in Beijing may also be interested to hear that the first zinc-nickel battery was developed by an Irish chemist, Dr. James J. Drumm, who is also considered the father of seismology.
Today, Ireland as a nation is ranked 1st in the world for immunology, 3rd for nanoscience; 4th for computer science research, and is placed 20th globally for scientific publications[1].
China, of course, also has an immensely rich and impressive culture of science, and an outstanding heritage that goes with it. It is to China that we pay gratitude for significant developments in mathematics, medicine, agriculture and horticulture, pharmacology, horology, transport and engineering. In astronomy, the first recorded observations of comets, solar eclipses, and supernovae were made in this great nation. Today you are an innovative leader in numerous fields, including high-speed rail, solar energy, supercomputing and space exploration. You are also the third largest publisher of scientific papers internationally.[2]
Neither of our nations has achieved all of these feats on our own. To advance, science requires broad horizons, and a willingness to seek out new ideas and perspectives from other disciplines and different cultures.
In an acknowledgement of this truth, Science Foundation Ireland, Ireland’s scientific funding agency, has at the core of its strategy a focus on building international partnerships that generate excellent science and deliver both economic and most importantly societal benefits both nationally and internationally.
For over a decade now, Ireland and China have benefitted from a successful cooperation on scientific and technological innovation. At the turn of the millennium, in the year 2000, the Agreement on Scientific and Technological Co-operation between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and the Government of Ireland was signed.
In 2012, a further Memorandum of Understanding on Ireland-China Science and Innovation Cooperation was signed by both sides. Another positive and very welcome development has been the receipt of funding under the International Strategic Collaboration Programme for China, which aims at fostering research capacity between Irish and Chinese universities and knowledge-intensive industries in the strategically important areas of ICT, biomedical science and nanotechnology. It is impressive to learn that currently the programme involves engagement between 39 different Chinese institutions and Irish universities and educational institutes.
The China-Irish Research Consortium, which aims to build a cohesive infrastructure for the development of strategic links between Irish research institutions and Chinese academia and industry, has led to interactions around a shared agenda to develop research and innovation collaborations in the three key thematic areas of agri-food, ICT and health.
These are very positive developments which augur well for continuing fruitful collaboration between Ireland and China and will have a greatly positive impact on scientific research in both countries.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are at a crucial juncture in the history of the world – a time when we must do everything possible to grasp the opportunities presented to us. Indeed it is critical, I believe, that Ireland, China and our international partners fully utilise their scientific successes to jointly address some of the great challenges that face us all as a global society.
The great challenges of food security and nutrition, ending poverty, building sustainable cities, tackling climate change, protecting our environment and providing adequate services for an ageing society are all challenges that require a sustained, urgent and collaborative global effort.
The question is: how do we balance the scale of the challenge, the height of our ambition and the pace of technological change to ensure that we are protecting the most fundamental of all resources – our people, the natural world and the environment?
Ireland as a nation, and our scientific community, will work with all global partners, including China, to seek to make real and significant advances in tackling these issues, with determination and ambition.
Ireland enjoys a close friendship with China. There are many common threads running through our societies. Our peoples have always risen to meet the challenges that we have faced along our historical journey, and I know that working together, we will continue to innovate and break down barriers, building on our friendship to foster closer collaborative ties in all aspects of our relationship.
The closer relationship that we are building in the Science and Technology field is set in the framework of warm, friendly and trusting political relations between our two nations.
Go raibh míle maith agaibh – Xie Xie dajia.
[1]http://www.sfi.ie/assets/files/downloads/News%20and%20Events/Press%20Releases/SFI%20annual%20report%202013%20Final.pdf
[2] http://www.nature.com/news/china-becomes-world-s-third-largest-producer-of-research-articles-1.14684 Accessed 17th November 2014