Manuel Heitor, Portugal's Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education, has called on the science centre community not to waver from their missions to educate, engage and increase public participation in scientific endeavour.

As a nation with an enviable record in areas such as medical research and renewable energies, and with scientists in the government's education and culture departments, Heitor explained these advances were the result of the "science effect" - thanks to sustained investment in the field.

"But we need to do more," Heitor said. "When we launched our science policy six years ago, it was to understand that science does not survive in social isolation."

Science centres play a huge role in helping science survive, and Portugal now has a network of more than 20 science-based attractions and has forged a path for people who want to follow science communication as a profession.

Heitor told attendees at the Ecsite Annual Conference 2017, which is being held in Porto, Portugal, to seize this opportunity to discuss why science communication is important, especially at a time when the US administration has slashed its science budget to the lowest level in 30 years.

"It is very important when we create science policy to clearly stress the mission of science centres, because they should not waver from their unique and very critical mission to promote science with passion, to promote science for all, in a very clear way," said Heitor, adding that they should remain straightforward and pragmatic in that mission.

"We also have new challenges that cannot be forgotten by science centres, for example, the need to better engage citizens-at-large in the process of understanding science. We also need to go beyond the understanding and communication of science to involve citizens in the agenda-setting process. How can we keep the mission of science centres, but at the same time engage people-at-large to help scientists define their agendas?" the minister said.