Response 'vindicates' state initiative in innovation

The strong response to call for proposals for research funding vindicates the government's wise decision to invest in this area which rather than scientific is an economic argument, a senior researcher at the Malta Council for Science and Technology says.

"If we are to give the economy that cutting edge it needs to compete in today's globalised world we have no option but to invest in research, and a model that has worked wherever it was tried is the research fund that has attracted almost 100 proposed here, far more than the eight or 12 that will ultimately be selected," Gordon J. Pace, senior researcher at the MCST's policy development unit says.

Dr Pace recalls that in the last budget the government gave concrete proof of its determination to the country's money where its mouth is by voting Lm300,000 for research outside the academic realm. "Not much, true, but for the first time the government made a firm commitment towards this vital area in the country's quest for competitiveness," he adds.

The MCST's chief executive officer, Wilfred Kenely, illustrates the need for such funding thus: "We speak about competitiveness which is driven by innovation. In turn, innovation greatly depends on research. In the long term, investment in research will pay back by boosting the country's competitiveness and the economy itself."

Dr Pace stresses that the rationale behind the research funding is of an economic nature.

Private industry is not spending in research, even because small enterprises are faced with a number of problems in terms of research, two in particular. SMEs realise that the return on investment on research is long term, something they do not relish, and they also find out they may have to allocate members of their already small workforce to particular research tasks that take a lot of time, Dr Pace explains.

The funding programme launched by the MCST earlier this year was precisely aimed at addressing such issues. Its main aim is to provide the necessary funding and contribute to the inculcation of a research culture.

Two years ago MCST embarked on foresight exercises in different areas of science and technology in an effort to establish the country's potential contribution to such areas and find out where the country could be competitive and where the modus operandi should change.

Attention was focused on three particular areas where activity is already taking place and where potential already exists: marine biology, information and communications technology and biotechnology.

Being the national contact organisation for the EU technological and research programme FP6, the MCST was in a better position to understand the problems faced by SMEs. It also realised there was "big" interest in participation although no research programmes as such existed in Malta. The only research, Dr Pace points out, was that done on an academic level. It is time we also start to address and encourage research in the private sector, he is quick to add.

The situation began to change both as the world economy became more globalised and also as Malta moved closer to European Union accession, which it attained on May 1 this year.

Dr Pace notes that in the so-called Lisbon strategy, the EU set itself an ambitious agenda: three per cent of GDP should be spent on research and innovation by 2010. In 2002 Malta's expenditure on innovation stood at 0.3 per cent of GDP.

Mr Kenely acknowledges that the target set in Lisbon by the EU may be too high for Malta to attain but "we can certainly set more tangible targets".

One thing both he and Dr Pace agree on is that funding and tangible recognition of the need to cultivate a research culture is a must.

This is proven by various factors but, mainly, competitiveness. Until some time ago SMEs were protected but EU membership meant the lifting of the regime of protective levies. Now they have no alternative but to restructure and become more innovative in order to become more competitive in the wide sense of the world.

"Now the stress should no longer be on coming up with cheaper products or services but, more importantly, on new and innovative products and services, hence moving the local industry up the so-called value chain," Mr Kenely said.

Current research in Malta is largely of an academic nature, or what Dr Pace describes as "curiosity driven scientific research". While it is important to sustain such research, what is urgently needed is to encourage more applied and close-to-market research, through which the local industry would benefit. "In the local commercial sector, research still plays a very limited role in most of the cases," he explains.

MCST is hoping that the research funding under the Research, Technological Development and Innovation (RTDI) programme would change all that. "This experience will certainly help us to plan better for the future and fine-tune our programmes. We can also move on to make a distinction between basic research and that which can be done by SMEs to then apply the results to their operations," Dr Pace explains.

The 100 odd proposals vying for research funding are currently being evaluated by a team of foreign scientists who have been asked by MCST to lay a lot of stress on the impact the proposed project would have on its declared aim.

This work should be concluded by end August or mid-September. Talks would then start between those behind the selected proposals and this would lead to the signing of the contracts which would clear the way for work on the projects to start by November. The duration of the research could vary from one to three years.

Both Mr Kenely and Dr Pace make it clear that the outcome of this programme would be a determining factor in MCST's and Malta's plans to participate in other EU scientific programmes, especially the Eranet (European research area network), which gives the opportunity for states to establish bilateral linkages and administer their own research programmes.

This, Mr Kenely is quick to point out, should also serve for Maltese researchers and scientists to do their work here, thus ensuring that Malta does not suffer a "brain drain" in this so important area of competitiveness.

Another advantage is that through Eranet, Malta would be able to participate in the exchange of best practice in research and also benefit and contribute to Europe-wide research programmes.

"The government's commitment is clearly there and the players are rearing to go," Dr Pace remarks with a twinkle in his eyes.