Minister Dijkgraaf is concerned about the “increasing distance between science and society”. In a lecture in Leiden, the Minister of Education, Culture and Science said that part of society is unreachable for science, even when it comes to life and death.
He believes that this gap should be narrowed and sees this as a task for science and politics and therefore also for himself. He called on politicians to stand for scientists and for the “facts that do not lie, that are so much more than just an opinion and that ultimately must have the last word”.
‘Heroic Achievement’
Dijkgraaf, who was a top scientist for a long time before he became minister, called it a “heroic achievement” by researchers that the first vaccines were approved in November 2020 in the corona pandemic and that they worked better than expected: “Thanks to those vaccines, the virus was many no longer life-threatening”.
For the minister, the biggest surprise of the pandemic was that “some would not or could not accept a life-saving gift, that even the fight against a pandemic could be politicized and that disinformation spread across the globe as fast as the virus particles”.
Wake-upcall
Dijkgraaf called corona a wake-up call and a unique learning moment. According to him, it is “the perfect case to see what happens when a global threat arises, knowledge offers us a way out, but a part of the people proves difficult to reach for various reasons”.
He emphasized the importance of investing in knowledge. According to him, the Netherlands should become more aware that research can also be “our salvation” in the event of a subsequent threat. The minister said he should not think that “counterforces of fake news and alternative facts” frustrate the fight against problems related to climate, nitrogen, digital security and social inequality.
Separation between politics and science
The minister also underlined that the division between politics and science should not be blurred. According to him, science should freely sketch scenarios, indicate uncertainties and formulate the facts as clearly as possible. Politicians then have to make choices, also in freedom.
In his lecture in Leiden, Dijkgraaf called on scientists to become more visible and accessible. According to him, the Netherlands is already leading the way and young scientists are already finding ways to reach a new audience.
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