Trinity European Laureate Award - The Future of Research

We are flying off to Brussels tomorrow morning for an event on democracy.

And it's our contribution to our forthcoming EU presidency, which is in only eight days' time.

And it's in partnership with Tineo, the global CEO advisory firm.

Delighted to welcome Gary McGann, who is the senior advisor.

and the chair of their advisory board, Francis Fitzgerald, and others from Tineo.

And it's been an incredible partnership over the past few months because what we do is we honor individuals and organizations who epitomize the European ideal, but it's about really more than that.

It's about the themes that are celebrated by recognizing those individuals and organizations.

So today it's a remarkable researcher, but by recognizing and celebrating that remarkable researcher, we're also recognizing the fundamental value of research to us in this country, across Europe and to the world.

And the title that I gave to the panel discussion after our laureate address is the future of research.

But today I realized that's actually the wrong title because today isn't really about the future of research.

It's about how research is fundamental to our future.

The research that we all contribute to and support and make possible, that's changing how we live our lives and the world that we live in and how we face up to our greatest challenges in healthcare and in technology and society, questions around democracy, all of the greatest challenges and questions of our time.

And research is fundamental to that.

And that's really what today is about.

I don't want to pick out individuals because there's so many incredible people from, as I say, across the country.

But one person I just want to mention is Professor Nicholas Canney from the University of Galway, because he was someone who was crucially involved in the creation of this wonderful research institute.

He served on the board of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council for many years.

He's been an incredible champion of research, an incredible champion of the humanities, an incredible visionary.

And it's wonderful to be able to welcome him back to the building that he helped to build.

So we're very grateful that he's here as well.