Rhodri Morgan, First Minister for Wales, visited the Darwin Centre on Friday at its base in Pembrokeshire Business Initiative, Milford Haven.
There he met young scientists and their science projects, who, with the support of the Darwin Centre and the Pembrokeshire Darwin Science Festival, recently won two top prizes at European Science Week in Florence.
The First Minister also saw a wide range of educational and entrepreneurial activities.
The Darwin Centre, which was established as a charitable trust in 1994, aims to bring cutting edge science and entrepreneurship into education and everyday life, through schools, festivals and public understanding of science and health.
The Darwin Centre will achieve this by forming partnerships internationally and within Pembrokeshire. It aims to be a flagship project for the county by being the Marine Technium of Wales.
Darwin will be a key player in the Year of Science in Wales. This year's festival launches at Pembrokeshire College with the Erasmus Darwin lecture on Giants of Science given by Professor Charles Stirton, Director of the National Botanic Garden for Wales.