Het Koninklijk Huis
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Toespraak van de Prins van Oranje, 28 september 2006 bij de uitreiking van de Heinekenprijzen voor Wetenschap en Kunst, Amsterdam, Beurs van Berlage
Distinguished laureates, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,
First of all, I want to congratulate the laureates most warmly on
being selected for the prestigious Heineken Prizes. I should also like
to express my great respect for Mrs Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken,
chair of the Alfred Heineken Funds Foundation.
The Dr A.H. Heineken Prizes are awarded to scientists who - and I
quote - are "outstanding and a source of inspiration to others". And,
needless to say, this also applies to the winner of the Heineken Prize
for Art.
"Outstanding and a source of inspiration to others". The brilliant
player who shows his or her team the way, achieves breakthroughs and
comes up with creative solutions. People like Freddy Heineken himself.
People who can break new ground and create space for other people to
use. Creative loners who nevertheless work closely with others. It
sounds slightly illogical, and yet we can see, in both art and
science, how this seeming paradox has borne fruit to an incredible
degree. As Sir Isaac Newton famously said: "If I have seen farther, it
is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
In current thinking on science and society, a great deal of time and
space is devoted to addressing social issues. From my own involvement
in global issues relating to water management, I can well understand
why. The world urgently needs the best scientific knowledge and
expertise, and I'm not just referring to technical knowledge, but to
knowledge about people, governance and international relations as
well. The world looks to science for help and, fortunately, the
scientific community is not deaf to its appeals.
And yet, when we weigh scientific curiosity against social urgency,
one thing becomes clear. However important innovation and dealing with
social issues may be, if you don't have enough space to pursue
scientific curiosity, to follow your intuition and to set your own
agenda, the source of inspiration will soon dry up. You may still be
"outstanding", but your role as "a source of inspiration to others"
will be diminished.
The importance of being free to pursue independent scientific
endeavour cannot be stressed highly enough. The five prestigious
scientific Heineken Prizes can thus be seen as a "source of
inspiration", by continuing to cherish the pursuit of independent
scientific activity in search of new insights. Just as the independent
pursuit of artistic endeavour is a precondition for discovering new
artistic directions.
Art and science are transnational, both literally and figuratively.
They are played out on the global stage, and many collaborative
ventures take the form of worldwide networks. Looking at the winners
of the major international scientific awards - including, of course,
the Heineken Prizes - it's clear that the United States leads in many
fields.
Scientists from all corners of the globe move to the US to pursue
their careers for longer or shorter periods. The openness and cultural
diversity of the American scientific community are a powerful stimulus
to greater creativity, new successes and fresh insights. The
Netherlands - and in my opinion Europe as a whole - can learn from
this.
If it adopts an open and hospitable stance, both internally and
externally, it can use its great cultural diversity to huge effect. I
sincerely hope we shall see signs of progress in this direction in the
near future.
This is the third time I have had the honour of presenting the
Heineken Prizes to a group of excellent scientists and an equally
excellent Dutch artist. It is a particular pleasure today to welcome
the first winner of the new Dr A.H. Heineken Prize for Cognitive
Science. A very challenging field, not only because of its broad
interdisciplinary scope, but more especially because of the subjects
it covers: how we think, how we learn, what determines our behaviour,
how the brain works: in short, how human intelligence functions, or
doesn't function.
Might I suggest that the role of individual creativity in developing
new scientific insights could also be a fascinating subject? But
perhaps I'm getting carried way!
I congratulate all six laureates on gaining these prestigious prizes.
Thank you.
© RVD