On the occasion of the first celebration of the Day of science in Slovenia

On this occasion, rector of the University of Nova Gorica, professor Boštjan Golob, pointed out:

"Those of us who deal with research and science can be proud of this occasion, for there are only a few countries in the world which could pride themselves on such a holiday."

At the same time, he stressed that the social view of science was essentially different in other countries, when compared to the situation in our country.

In those environments most of the population is unlikely to view scientific institutions as something which merely use part of the national financial sources, but rather as something which enables economy to create major developmental ideas. Without decades of fundamental research we would not have applications such as ChatGPT, and without decades of publicly financed research there would not be companies such as SpaceX. Science also enables society to preserve its contact with the rest of the world - if you fail to understand what others talk about, you might not be able to take part in conversations. Last but not least, science helps us to survive - without an intensive, five year research we would not be able to reach the clinical study stage concerning the gene therapy development for the syndrom found in Urban, a Slovenian boy.

In many countries scientific work is a theme that the media tend to report more gladly than various forms of affairs, and they take scientific work seriously.

In those environments, more than 57 % of population knows that pre-humans did not live in the same period of time as dinosaurs did (Eurobarometer 2024).

»We are proud that in Slovenia we honour science through a national holiday. Yet for a breakthrough in the social understanding of science we would need to walk some miles more«, concluded the rector, professor Boštjan Golob.