Brussels, 02/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Descartes Prize Ceremony on 2 December at Prague Castle consisted of EUR 250,000 for outstanding research in communication science and European public research. The new Commissioner for research, Janez Potocnik from Slovenia, used the occasion to underline the importance of dialogue between the scientific community and society, at the moment Europe was seeking to invest more than 2% of its GDP into research and 3% of its GDP by 2010. The Commissioner explained that, "to bring science closer to society, science must be made public…The public has to be kept aware of the results of research". The Commission is hoping that this new prize will help the public to better understand the role of science and research. (For further information on the Descartes Prize: http://www.cordis.lu/descartes/ ).