Research and innovation a priority at Tal-Qroqq
Upgraded science labs, more time and money for basic researching, and making the best of EU funding are, hopefully, expected to increase the contribution of the University of Malta towards more much-needed research and innovation. However, things need...
Upgraded science labs, more time and money for basic researching, and making the best of EU funding are, hopefully, expected to increase the contribution of the University of Malta towards more much-needed research and innovation. However, things need to keep moving now that we have started.
These are the views of Richard Muscat, the first university pro-rector to have the specific tag for research and innovation, underlining the new impetus in this particular area since the appointment of Juanito Camilleri as rector last year.
Prof. Muscat started off the interview with i-Tech by brandishing the National Strategic Plan for Research and Innovation: 2007-2010 published by the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) on behalf of the government.
"Now we have direction on the way in which the country would like to move, what we should be focusing on: health, biotechnology, ICT, energy, tourism high-tech and engineering, with the environment as an underlining common factor," he said while leafing through the lengthy document that exposes Malta's inherent dearth of science and technology research.
The strategy admits that until as recently as 2002, statistics regarding national spending on R&I were not available, resulting in a lack of awareness among policy-makers of the extent to which the country was lagging behind in this critical area. While progress has been achieved, much is yet to be accomplished.
Taking one particular parameter, which reflects directly on the performance of the University of Malta, in 2003 Malta produced only 3.1 graduates in science and technology per 1,000 population. In comparison, the EU25 average was 12.3, while the US produced 10.9.
"My role involves seeing that the university follows this strategy and looks deeply at what it has been doing well and maybe not so well," explained Prof. Muscat. "The bottom line is that the number of PhDs is low compared to any other country in the EU. We do have good pockets of research but we still need to improve."
Last year the government scholarship scheme was launched and the university also sits on the board to select students undertaking Masters and PhDs in the areas highlighted in the strategy and elsewhere. Some 25 students were supported last year and the scheme is being repeated this year.
At the same time MCST has been assigned Lm300,000 for applied research. The number of applications was worth Lm3 million and there were some good proposals.
However, money remains a central issue.
"The university should come in to do basic research," stressed the pro-rector. "Our budget for research last year was Lm120,000. How much can you do with that? I am not saying it is little but it is not enough to do what we want to do."
EU funds are making a difference, according to Prof. Muscat, and the university will apply for EU structural funds when made available to upgrade all laboratories, including the engineering, chemistry and biology labs, with a proposal worth €10 million.
However, he stressed that "these chances come around once in a lifetime and the university wants to take up the opportunity. But we cannot expect overnight results".
Throughout the interview, Prof. Muscat harped on the need to get things moving, while keeping in mind the realities of a small country.
"If we don't start the process we will never get off the bottom of the ladder. Now what we want to see is that our research grant from the government goes up so we can do the basic research and then enable more students to register for a PhD and transfer that know-how into a high-value science-based industry.
"We have to cut the cloth according to what we have. Let us not pretend we are a large state with resources like the UK or Germany. We are a little village compared to them; people forget this thing sometimes. ICT and SmartCity are a good example of what we may achieve and hopefully, with the European structural funds, science and technology is going to be boosted here."
The pro-rector warned that now that the process of boosting R&I has started, it is not to be slowed down or stopped by inherent characteristics of the Maltese way of doing things, hinting at the usual stop/start phenomenon caused to some extent by sweeping changes in government and in ministers responsible for this sector.
"The crucial thing now is that, if we do these things and do them properly and have some continuity, the future will look bright. What's imperative is that, once this process is started, it is not stopped because this is the biggest problem we have here. We get things started and then they get stopped for one reason or another."
Prof. Muscat does not like the label sometimes given to the university that it's like an ivory tower at Tal-Qroqq.
"That is a real anomaly for me because what the university of Malta is doing is catering for Maltese society. Look at the degrees on offer that result in accountants, bankers, pharmacists, lawyers, engineers, doctors, nurses, social workers; the list of professions that serve Malta so well looks endless.
"If anything, my complaint would be the other way round: There is too little academia and research compared to what we produce for society in general. Maybe now we need to put a bit more academia and research into university."
The new collective agreement for university academic staff will come under discussion over the coming months. It might be worth considering more flexibility to lecturers to decide whether they are going to focus more on lecturing or on research. Until now lecturers are bound to divide their time exactly between lecturing, research and administration.
Another important step is restructuring Malta University Services Ltd (MUS), the commercial arm providing technology transfer to industry, professional training services and publications. A new post for a full-time chief executive officer has been advertised and the new structure should help formalise links between the university and industry. This should also help raise independent funds for a university that until now is almost totally dependent on the yearly subvention from the government.
Another initiative is to have better communication with society at large, especially through the mass media, to keep the public abreast of the thousand and one things going on at university in the field of R&I.
"We don't go flag waving. People here just get on with it. It now looks like this is a real opportune moment for communicating better with the public in our endeavour to create mutual understanding," concluded the pro-rector.
These are the views of Richard Muscat, the first university pro-rector to have the specific tag for research and innovation, underlining the new impetus in this particular area since the appointment of Juanito Camilleri as rector last year.
Prof. Muscat started off the interview with i-Tech by brandishing the National Strategic Plan for Research and Innovation: 2007-2010 published by the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) on behalf of the government.
"Now we have direction on the way in which the country would like to move, what we should be focusing on: health, biotechnology, ICT, energy, tourism high-tech and engineering, with the environment as an underlining common factor," he said while leafing through the lengthy document that exposes Malta's inherent dearth of science and technology research.
The strategy admits that until as recently as 2002, statistics regarding national spending on R&I were not available, resulting in a lack of awareness among policy-makers of the extent to which the country was lagging behind in this critical area. While progress has been achieved, much is yet to be accomplished.
Taking one particular parameter, which reflects directly on the performance of the University of Malta, in 2003 Malta produced only 3.1 graduates in science and technology per 1,000 population. In comparison, the EU25 average was 12.3, while the US produced 10.9.
"My role involves seeing that the university follows this strategy and looks deeply at what it has been doing well and maybe not so well," explained Prof. Muscat. "The bottom line is that the number of PhDs is low compared to any other country in the EU. We do have good pockets of research but we still need to improve."
Last year the government scholarship scheme was launched and the university also sits on the board to select students undertaking Masters and PhDs in the areas highlighted in the strategy and elsewhere. Some 25 students were supported last year and the scheme is being repeated this year.
At the same time MCST has been assigned Lm300,000 for applied research. The number of applications was worth Lm3 million and there were some good proposals.
However, money remains a central issue.
"The university should come in to do basic research," stressed the pro-rector. "Our budget for research last year was Lm120,000. How much can you do with that? I am not saying it is little but it is not enough to do what we want to do."
EU funds are making a difference, according to Prof. Muscat, and the university will apply for EU structural funds when made available to upgrade all laboratories, including the engineering, chemistry and biology labs, with a proposal worth €10 million.
However, he stressed that "these chances come around once in a lifetime and the university wants to take up the opportunity. But we cannot expect overnight results".
Throughout the interview, Prof. Muscat harped on the need to get things moving, while keeping in mind the realities of a small country.
"If we don't start the process we will never get off the bottom of the ladder. Now what we want to see is that our research grant from the government goes up so we can do the basic research and then enable more students to register for a PhD and transfer that know-how into a high-value science-based industry.
"We have to cut the cloth according to what we have. Let us not pretend we are a large state with resources like the UK or Germany. We are a little village compared to them; people forget this thing sometimes. ICT and SmartCity are a good example of what we may achieve and hopefully, with the European structural funds, science and technology is going to be boosted here."
The pro-rector warned that now that the process of boosting R&I has started, it is not to be slowed down or stopped by inherent characteristics of the Maltese way of doing things, hinting at the usual stop/start phenomenon caused to some extent by sweeping changes in government and in ministers responsible for this sector.
"The crucial thing now is that, if we do these things and do them properly and have some continuity, the future will look bright. What's imperative is that, once this process is started, it is not stopped because this is the biggest problem we have here. We get things started and then they get stopped for one reason or another."
Prof. Muscat does not like the label sometimes given to the university that it's like an ivory tower at Tal-Qroqq.
"That is a real anomaly for me because what the university of Malta is doing is catering for Maltese society. Look at the degrees on offer that result in accountants, bankers, pharmacists, lawyers, engineers, doctors, nurses, social workers; the list of professions that serve Malta so well looks endless.
"If anything, my complaint would be the other way round: There is too little academia and research compared to what we produce for society in general. Maybe now we need to put a bit more academia and research into university."
The new collective agreement for university academic staff will come under discussion over the coming months. It might be worth considering more flexibility to lecturers to decide whether they are going to focus more on lecturing or on research. Until now lecturers are bound to divide their time exactly between lecturing, research and administration.
Another important step is restructuring Malta University Services Ltd (MUS), the commercial arm providing technology transfer to industry, professional training services and publications. A new post for a full-time chief executive officer has been advertised and the new structure should help formalise links between the university and industry. This should also help raise independent funds for a university that until now is almost totally dependent on the yearly subvention from the government.
Another initiative is to have better communication with society at large, especially through the mass media, to keep the public abreast of the thousand and one things going on at university in the field of R&I.
"We don't go flag waving. People here just get on with it. It now looks like this is a real opportune moment for communicating better with the public in our endeavour to create mutual understanding," concluded the pro-rector.