Dear graduating students, faculty, administration and other guests.

It is a great pleasure for me to be here today for the graduation ceremony of RES, The School for Renewable Energy Science.

As you know I have only recently been appointed as a minister of Education, Science and Culture as a member of the Left-Green Movement. One of the corner stones of the Left-Green Movements´ policy is conservation of the environment with emphasis on natural resources and how they can be utilized in a sustainable manner. I have great interest in that field, and I have followed with great interest research in renewable energy science as I see the possibilities for Iceland to take a world-wide lead and stand out in the field of renewable energy research.

In this context let me remind you that last week the largest research grants that have been awarded by the Icelandic authorities were announced.  Earlier this year The Science and Technology Policy Council of Iceland called for proposals for Centers of Excellence and Research Cluster where funding would be provided for up to seven years with up to 80 million krona each year.  This call for proposals was met with great interest within the science community and 82 ideas were submitted, of which 10 were selected to send in complete research proposals.   Three grants were awarded, and the largest grant (of 70 million krona for the year 2009) was awarded to the project:  GEOthermal Research Group (GEORG) that focuses on research and development of geothermal resources in a sustainable way. The research group is led by Dr. Sigurður M. Garðarsson at the University of Iceland, with the collaboration of other universities and education institutes and experts in geothermal energy, and I noted that one of the partners of the research group is RES.
This group will focus research on geothermal energy with the goal of reducing the world dependence on carbon-based energy sources.  I find the research proposal very interesting and have great expectations for the research group.

RES has now completed the first year of the program, and I am certain that it has been an interesting year for all parties involved.  The collaboration of RES, University of Akureyri and University of Iceland towards making this program a reality is teamwork that seems to have worked very well. 

With the economic crisis that we are experiencing, we know that the next few years will be difficult.  Now, even more than before, we must put even more emphasis on collaboration between universities, research institutes and private companies to join forces for facing the challenges ahead.  But with Iceland’s clean energy, natural resources and well-educated workforce, I am optimistic that we have a firm basis to overcome the current economic difficulties.

To the graduates, that will receive their Masters of Science degree in Renewable Energy Science today;  I congratulate you on a job well done and wish you all the best in the future.