Lisbon, April 20, 2025 (Lusa) - Scientist Maria Manuel Mota, who will chair the 34th APDC congress, said on Sunday that science and business should dialogue, acknowledging that "this dialogue is often difficult because the languages are different".

The APDC has rescheduled the 34th Digital Business Congress for 01 and 02 July, following the early elections on 18 May. The congress's main theme will be "Science & Business: Working Together," which refers to science and business working together.

"At first, I'm honest, I thought: Have they made a mistake?" wondered Maria Manuel Mota, CEO of the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM), the result of the merger between the Institute for Molecular Medicine (IMM) and the Gulbenkian Institute of Science (IGC).

He added that APDC has evolved as an association, having "started out with a completely different objective" and is now a "Digital Business".

"We're in that era [...] and I thought this might be more useful even for me," not least because “we're trying to make a big digital transformation within the GIMM Foundation,” so “it's very interesting to meet all these people,” acknowledged the researcher, recognised for her significant contributions to malaria research.

The motto of this year's congress is "science & business".

"At first people think it has nothing to do with it - and there's a part of it that can't have anything to do with it," that is, discovery, “science, scientists who do it because they're curious and that part is really important and those scientists have to be protected,” she continues.

But, "obviously, we know that these discoveries, sooner or later, can reach people, can reach whatever, the planet and it's very important that this path can be taken and, therefore, it's obvious that “business” has to come into the equation," he says.

This is a "facet of our institution that is also present", so "when I saw it - and I think I interpreted the invitation well - I thought: I think we can make a good partnership", in the sense that "both sides win", he emphasises.

"I thought it was super interesting and, after the first conversation with them, I thought we could do something very well," she says.

The researcher argues that science and business, companies, "can have a dialogue".

"What we need is for there to be a dialogue," she insists, recalling that the GIMM foundation is recent, but that it has “a great legacy” of two great institutions - IMM and IGC - the latter of which began in 1961 and the former 20 years ago, but with a parallel, distinct path.

"They both came close to transferring all their discoveries, we call it "translation", translating what our scientists discover without, initially, any interest in "business" or without any interest, just [...] driven by curiosity," continues Maria Manuel Mota.

The institution "works with researchers more and more, and the new generations of scientists want to do more of this, to translate their discoveries into something that can impact society, the planet, people, whatever it may be".

"I think that's something we can bring, that vision, and our vision is one of dialogue."

However, "this dialogue is often difficult because the languages are different", but "there has to be this rapprochement so that we understand each other better", he argues.

This doesn't mean that "we have to have the same language at all. Each monkey on his own branch and each one developing in his own way, but we have to have the ability to communicate with each other because I think we have to gain from each other in this dialogue," says the researcher.

When asked about her work at GIMM, the scientist said they are making "discoveries all the time".

She pointed out that the institute's communications people are even "on tenterhooks because, all of a sudden, we have I don't know how many papers published this month in major scientific journals and discoveries, whether in malaria, inflammation or colorectal cancer. "

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