Economic crisis? Spend more on research and development

Forget scientists locked in a lab for days and nights on end to experiment on things that will see the light of the day in several years’ time. Research and development can be a driver for economic development, especially in times of economic crisis.

This was the message delivered at a public discussion meeting organised by the Malta Council for Science and Technology about how small countries can steer research and innovation towards entrepreneurship.

“If the country really wants to set up a knowledge economy based on science and technology, the necessary ecosystem should be put into place and should be backed with long-term vision and support,” insists Nicholas Sammut, chairman of the MCST.

“Malta still needs to build up its culture for research and innovation. As a people, we have a lot of potential but we simply don’t know how to use it or invest in it. It is clear to me now that it is crucial that researchers start to publicise their work and results and reach out to the public to show what they are doing. This externalisation of research is key to improving Malta’s research culture. Only by changing this culture can we start to hope to find local investors who are willing to put their resources in an excellent (research and development) project that becomes a commercial hit in the long term.”

At the moment there are funds for R&D for industry through Malta Enterprise. The MCST national R&I (research and innovation) fund bridges industry and academia but this desperately needs boosting and needs to be guaranteed every year to ensure continuity of the research.

“Funding in academia hasn’t been given priority, which is a shame as that is where a good proportion of innovative ideas spark off,” warns Dr Sammut. “However, more importantly, we need to set up a framework that takes the results of the research and hand holds them towards commercialisation. This has to be backed by proper intellectual property support (i.e. funding for patents) and first and second stage equity financing frameworks.”

Although Malta seems to score low time after time in the EU’s table of research and development, there seems to be a thirst locally for funds and support. The MCST’s R&I funding programme has already one prospective start-up company, three products on the path to commercialisation, research results winning international awards, a number of patents and a number of innovative products which are investigating patenting possibilities.

“The national research and innovation fund is starting to reach its objectives and is starting to bear fruit,” Dr Sammut told i-Tech. “Notwithstanding the limitations that our economies of scale impose, the results are clearly demonstrating that Malta has reached the stage where it can consider R&D to be a starting point of a new economic driver that deserves proper investment. These encouraging results and the fact that the fund is usually oversubscribed by a factor of 10, shows that Maltese industry and academia have a huge thirst for this economic driver to kick off.”

Despite all this enthusiasm, there are some serious obstacles to overcome.

“Malta, being so small, suffers from the necessary critical mass in most areas and hence needs to focus its efforts on a handful of fields. We cannot do everything. We need to pick on a small number of projects with a high potential and a high probability of success and align as many people as we can to these initiatives.

“Maltese industry has to chip in its fair share too. After all, its support for research and innovation will eventually pay off as it had done in Finland for example. Following the crises of the early 1990s Finland curbed other expenditure but increased R&D expenditure by 25 per cent between 1996 and 1999. The results of Finland’s strategy are now clearly evident.

“Unless businesses invest in new ideas, new products, new services or improvements in whatever it is they sell, it would be very hard for them to maintain the competitive edge. Innovation has been proven to lead to economic well being time and again. In times of crises, the argument should be made for even higher investment in R&D, as President Barack Obama is doing in the US and as the EU is seeking to emulate in its current strategies,” concludes Dr Sammut.