Welcoming remarks, Transatlantic Science Week, Stanford University

The essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote: Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.  

That is what research and innovation is all about - leaving a trail, set some footprints.The question is how we go about doing that. It is not easy.

Well. A good place to start is to set up a map, for instance by increasing the cooperation between education, research and innovation, the three central and strongly interdependent drivers of the knowledge-based society. Together they are often referred to as the “knowledge triangle”.  

The question is, of course, how we can promote the ultimate interaction between these three main drivers. How do we optimize the linkages between the education, research and innovation sectors, in order to promote sustainable socio-economic development? 

As a Minister of research and higher education I am well aware of the crucial role research and higher education institutions can play by creating and disseminating knowledge valuable for society and companies. They also provide important links to a wider audience outside the core sectors of the triangle.
  

The role of universities to provide human resources for research and innovation is obvious. To educate is to refine human capital! But these institutions need close connections with cutting-edge research in order to provide high quality education. The close interaction between research and training activities in higher education institutions is what gives them their unique and crucial role in the knowledge society. 

At the same time more and more companies realize that they need to make use of the knowledge developed by universities and research centres. This is something we discuss in political talks, for instance between minister Giske and myself – and our ministries. And in order to find the best knowledge and the best partners, companies need to look across national borders. 

So in short, some initiatives and action is necessary. The triangle is a pertinent image of this mutual dependency. We need more and better cooperation across all borders. 

The real challenge is of course to actually transform this image into a comprehensive model for collaboration. How do we transcend the borders between researchers and students, companies and academia?

Our common task is to find new modus operandi that will allow this great machinery  to run smoothly and to the benefit of us all, and that is able to bring us forward, making that trail!

Because it is indeed these initiatives and cooperation that will enable us to meet fundamental global challenges - whether we are talking about climate change, energy shortage or even poverty.

 At this year’s Science Week we look in to some of these issues.

I am sure there are many ways to improve the links between the three main partners involved. But as I mentioned before, there is one thing that is crucial for the interaction of education, research and innovation to work.

What we seek is of great value, a major part of our national fortune, and no, it is not petroleum; it is not raw materials. It is what we normally refer to as human resources…. It is people!

Because, the most fundamental part of either side of the triangle is of course the people in it. People with visions and ambitions. People who are not afraid to think big, and who strive towards new knowledge, new solutions and new technologies. People that education and experiences have refined.

We need people who want both to collaborate across borders of any kind, but also people who are willing to cross the borders - from academia to industry, and back again, and across international borders as well.

We also need inspired researchers and innovators that want to share their knowledge with our students. Those are true visionaries.

Many visionaries are already “out there” – and many of you are in here, today. And you are fundamental for the knowledge triangle to work.

But I am sure you will agree with me, that the most important people are - the next generation. Our students. Our trainees. Our researchers and innovators to be. As was pointed out earlier in the week by Crown Prince Haakon, they are the ones who will solve our common challenges in the future.

And this is why earlier this week we launched the new North America Strategy for Higher Education Cooperation to follow up on the previous, very successful strategy. We are also developing an action plan to follow up on the already existing Strategy for Norwegian cooperation in science and technology with North America.

Together these strategies cover large parts of the knowledge triangle, connecting education, research and innovation. And that is why we will coordinate the follow-up of these strategies, that is why we want to translate them into concrete agreements and partnerships. Keeping up the openness to the world around us coupled with our democratic and human values.

This link is fundamental. In order to meet our future challenges, we need to include our future scientists and entrepreneurs in today’s research.

So while you are out there leaving a trail, instead of following a path – remember to bring our students with you on that trail – so that they, in the future can find their own ways, make their own trails. In Norway, we celebrate this year 150 years since Fridtjof Nansen was born. He was an explorer searching the unknown in the polar regions. But he was also a scientist. He combines the utmost effort and struggle with real science. There were no trails that he could follow – he made his own across Greenland, 3 years in the ice towards the North Pole, in brain science, and in the science of the deep oceans – searching for answers to unknown questions.

“Ski trails are man’s most beautiful prints on the earth”.

Even if the snow is white, maybe this could be a foundation of the green economy, the more environmentally friendly production. The development of Apple’s Iphones, Ipod, Itunes and Ipads the last two-three years has been amazing.

I do not know if Steve Jobs ever read Emerson (that I quoted), or cared for his poetry. But in the Commencement address here at Stanford University in June 2005 Steve Jobs told three stories from his life – from which he is often quoted. These stories reflect the same spirit Emerson conveys in his poetry. Follow your gut, he said. Trust your instincts. And create your own path, your own destiny. Your own life.

Don’t be content to take the road less travelled by  - create a new one!