"Science Needs Reform at All Levels"

 by: Professor Dato Dr Ahmad Ibrahim, Tan Sri Omar Centre for STI Policy, UCSI University 

NATION building would be handicapped without a solid support from science and technology. Science is the prerequisite for technology development. Technology however changes so fast that many are not able to keep up. The fact that technological power is a key determinant of a nation’s competitiveness is a foregone conclusion. And technology thrives in a society which embraces innovation as a culture. There is much evidence to corroborate the fact that together the combination of Science, Technology and Innovation, STI, can deliver wonders to a nation’s socio-economic prosperity and sustainability. This is no more a secret as we see mounting evidence of countries, which invest wisely in STI, becoming more competitive. Investments in STI would include robust R&D spending, vibrant talent development, and a healthy innovation ecosystem which brings  strategic stakeholders, including industry, academia, government and even civil society, together to chart the path forward for technology strengthening.

    Despite various initiatives by the government, we still struggle to put in place a vibrant STI ecosystem. The stakeholders are not collaborating enough, mostly working in silos. Our R&D spending has remained stuck for decades at around 1% GDP. Most developed countries spend on the average 3-3.5% GDP for R&D. It is a concern that the bulk of our R&D spending comes from the government. In the developed economies, at least 70% of their R&D spending comes from business and industry. We need to invigorate higher R&D spending from industry. The R&D ecosystem in palm oil is one model which has worked well. The innovation quadruple helix has taken our palm oil business to great heights in the highly competitive global oils and fats business. Replicating such a model in other industry sectors is worth looking at.

    Building and retaining good talent in STI is another struggle. Not only are we having difficulty attracting new talent, but we are also losing many among our STI talent to other countries. Many have left to participate in better STI ecosystem elsewhere. How do we minimise such brain drain? There is need for serious rethinking about how to not only retain our trained talent but also attract talents from outside to help us realise our STI aspirations. On top of all that, very few students now opt to take up science. Our 60:40 target of getting more to do science continues to elude us. The closest we got to was 30%. Now it is even lower at 20%. This is despite all the efforts to popularise STEM. The lack of interest is mostly due to the fact that a career in STI, especially in R&D, is not so attractive. We do not face much problem getting students to do science to become engineers and doctors. We need to make a career in STI research more rewarding if we are to attract more to do science.

    However, enough funding and good STI talent alone would not guarantee success, We would still face difficulties if the STI ecosystem is not robust and functioning. A weak R&D ecosystem is especially worrying. The disconnect between industry and academia is still there. Again, it is not that the government has not done anything. Over the years, many initiatives have been introduced to close the gap. Unfortunately, they have not yielded the results we hope for. This partly explain why the commercialization of R&D has always been pitifully low. The mismatch between what business wants and what academia delivers remains unresolved. We need new approaches. We should explore models from outside the country which work, and adapt them for the local situation.

    This is where the new administration can bring change. We need new measures to address the underlined STI weaknesses that have persisted for some time now. The STI policies that are already put in place still face execution challenges for example. Institutions must rise above their individual narrow interest to pursue more collaboration for the sake of the nation. Failure to create the right STI ecosystem, and invest wisely in STI, can be retrogressive as we strive to generate a robust return of value from all our investments in STI R&D and tap on the many opportunities coming our way..