Lisbon, April 20, 2025 (Lusa) - Researcher Maria Manuel Mota said in an interview with Lusa that to strengthen investment in science, political action must be brought closer to political discourse, pointing out that talent goes to the places that offer the best conditions.

"If you do what you say, in terms of political discourse for science", that “is very important”, says the CEO of the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM).

Not least because, she added, "it must be rare for a State of the Union speech not to mention this aspect and, therefore, you just have to act on what is said".

"Talents always go to the places that offer them the conditions to develop their talent, it's as simple as that," she said, when asked if they continue to flee the country.

The researcher recalls that "a large part of life is spent developing talent", so it's normal for people's decisions to be based on the offer of better conditions, which don't just include a better salary, which also has a "big impact".

In addition to the salary, any scientist must have "the conditions to have peace, to have the environment to follow their curiosity", something she pointed out as "really important".

But above all, "what scientists want is to have institutions that provide them with the environment that supports them in being able to follow this path," she continued. In other words, "these institutions have to be strong, well-funded institutions that support their own experiments," Maria Manuel Mota said.

However, if the institution doesn't know "when the funding is coming, how it's coming and in what quantity, it's almost impossible to create these conditions," she warned.

"I think that, in essence, this is what we're experiencing in Portugal: institutions that aren't strong enough to simply create the conditions to attract and keep these people because we can attract them, but once we've attracted them we need to keep them here and forget it, the sun, the climate and the gastronomy aren't enough at all," the scientist said.

The GIMM CEO also said that society needs to have "different expectations" so that there are more women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) fields.

"We've exceeded the 60% of women in our jobs at our institution, including as scientists," but if you look at the group of people leading a scientific team, “it's probably below 30%,” she said.

So, "there's a big disparity and that's the difference here, for other areas, more so in engineering, which starts at the bottom, there aren't many women either." And how does this change?

And how is this changing? "I don't have a crystal ball, but I have to say that when I was younger, when I started this area, I thought it would be a matter of a decade, two decades", and everyone said it was making its way.

"Yes, it's making its way, at a snail's pace," and “people have to realise this,” she stressed.

In this way, "we're never going to reach there, and I'm not saying equality because I don't think we have to be equal, I think the beautiful thing about the world" is that it's different and diverse, "but it's a place where nobody, because of their characteristics, feels they have to be more or less".

For the researcher, society opens up opportunities for everyone; if a person can't be one thing, they can be another.

"Society opens up this path, and this is true for any group in society, including minorities." Still, the issue is that “we deal with the problem between men and women as if women were a minority,” which is not true as they make up 50% of the population.

"This problem will only be solved when society solves it" and as long as there is a society in which the role “is so different” in caring for descendants and ascendants because “if we immediately put women in the main role” of 90% of these carers, “they obviously won't go into other areas”, she said.

This is because looking after children and caring for relatives come at "two times in life when it's very important to move up the career ladder", the first when you can make a "more exponential progression" and the other where you "have more places" to go.

"Now, if we simply take women out of the labour market at these two stages, or prevent them from dedicating themselves to it and wanting to do it, then we obviously have a problem," she said.

Ultimately, it's a "societal problem. We have to give opportunities, and it's not a matter of choice. I'd like to make that very clear," she added.

"It's not a question of choice, if a certain role is expected of us," society “has to have different expectations,” Maria Manuel Mota said. This includes "all of us and those who govern us".

When asked to give advice to young people who want to achieve the researcher's success, she is peremptory: "Be very ambitious".

"I think you should aspire to win the Nobel Prize one day," she concluded.

ALU/ADB // ADB.

Lusa