Malta did boost its spending in research and innovation in recent years but it lags far behind the rest of the EU according to the latest report about the European Research Area (ERA), which aims to create a single market for research in the EU.
However, Malta’s small size is a factor that has to be taken into account, and the Life Sciences Centre being built in San Ġwann, right now at the centre of a controversy over its management, is identified as a catalyst for a Maltese national research infrastructure.
ERA aims to enable researchers, research institutions and businesses to better move, compete and co-operate across borders.
This would strengthen EU member states’ research and development (R&D) systems, increase their competitiveness and allow them to work together more effectively to tackle major challenges.
Even the best performing research institutions still have issues to address ahead of the 2014 deadline for ERA
The European Commission has just presented a first comprehensive analysis of the state of the ERA which reveals how some progress has been made, but even the best performing research institutions still have issues to address ahead of the 2014 deadline for ERA, as set by EU leaders. There is also a significant gap between the best and the worst performers.
There is also a factual base for assessing progress in target areas like open and fair recruitment of researchers or better circulation of scientific knowledge.
Public spending on research, measured as the share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to government budget appropriations or outlays for R&D (GBAORD) has been declining in the EU since 2009 and, at 1.47 per cent in 2011, is now at the lowest level since 2002. In some member states, public research effort is declining while total national expenditure is growing.
The report contains an assessment for each member state. GBAORD in Malta was just 0.22 per cent in 2011. Total GBAORD per capita rose until 2010, when it started to decline. The national public effort on research and development, measured as the share of total GBAORD in national expenditures in Malta was of 0.53 per cent in 2011.
“Malta typically faces the issues of a small country with limited R&D capacity and funding to engage in cross-border cooperation. Given the relative short history of R&D policy in Malta, the bulk of efforts have been directed towards Malta’s participation in the EU Framework Programme.
“The construction of the Life Sciences Centre may be considered a first step towards the development of a national research infrastructure,” the report said.
Malta’s research governance system consists of the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST) and Malta Enterprise.
The MCST, which recently moved under the responsibility of the Ministry for Education and Employment, is responsible for research and innovation policy and manages the implementation of the national research and innovation funding programme.
Malta Enterprise, which answers to the Ministry of Economy, Investment and Small Business, is the national development agency responsible for the growth and development of Maltese enterprises and operates a number of R&D schemes.
The report says the draft National Research and Innovation Strategy (2011-2020) was expected to be adopted by September 2013. However the draft strategy was still open for public consultation last month.
The development of research and innovation (R&I) policy – including the R&I funding programme – started only recently, following Malta’s accession to the EU in 2004.
Malta’s research landscape is relatively small with one public university, the University of Malta, as the main research performer in the higher education sector.
Malta has only one public research organisation, the Malta Aquaculture Research Centre.
A number of government departments may be involved in research activities to a small degree, but they do not have a dedicated research budget. The report notes there are no institutional assessments of the University of Malta or the public research centre and the allocation of institutional funding is hence not based on performance.
In a country with so few public research organisations, competitive allocation of institutional funding is not considered realistic or effective.
Considering that R&I policies were put in place only recently, the key priority for Maltese authorities is to strengthen Malta’s science and technology basis.
In particular, a key challenge identified by Maltese authorities is to ensure that the country trains a sufficient number of researchers and highly skilled people and is able to retain them locally. This has resulted in a series of measures aiming at raising the attractiveness of research careers and the R&I environment.
Back to the European level, the report underlines that progress has been achieved in all target areas, but it also highlights a number of areas of continued concern, including the declining public investment in R&D as a percentage of overall government spending in some member states.
National research programmes still operate according to different rules, which makes transnational research cooperation difficult.
The development and implementation of infrastructures, such as very intense lasers or extremely large telescopes, is hampered by financial, management and political barriers and often national rules or high entry costs prevent researchers from other member states from accessing them.
Open, transparent and merit-based recruitment practices are still not broadly implemented for all research positions with little researcher mobility.
Gender inequality means female researchers’ talent is still being wasted. Also, relatively few researchers in Europe are employed in industry, and these researchers are not sufficiently prepared for the labour market.