Following the election of new government, and at the onset of a major financial crisis that lasts to these days, some of us (scientists) were very worried by a shift in funding of science from basic to applied. It was (and is) our conviction that without a solid foundation in basic science no disruptive innovation is likely to emerge. We initiated the Manifesto Ciência Portugal – an article in Expresso in 10.06.2011 describes this movement (click here for the newspaper article, in Portuguese).