In recent years research and innovation are being given increasing importance on European Union and member state agendas in recognition of their vital role in transforming the economy, strengthening competitiveness and improving the quality of life. The last three EU presidencies – the UK, Austria and Finland – have continued to emphasise the need for dedicated measures to boost investments and improve capacities in research and innovation. At the national level, these have been given prominence in Malta’s National Reform Programme 2006, which identifies research and innovation as key national challenges.
2006 has marked a highly significant year for research and innovation in Malta as a result of a number of changes introduced by the government to highlight the new priority being assigned to the sector on the national agenda. The change process started with a review in 2005 of the whole research and innovation sector. The review highlighted the need for urgent action to improve the governance of research and innovation and to strengthen the related structures. A number of the recommendations were immediately implemented, affecting the structure and organisation of the Reasearch and Innovation (R&I) policy-making framework together with the orientation, development and implementation of policies.
The Malta Council for Science and Technology, the policy advisory body to the government on science, technology and innovation, was re-located to the Office of the Prime Minister and its remit was re-defined. The MCST Board was re-constituted with representation from the relevant key ministries and a larger Advisory Council, which was set up involving a broad range of actors from the business, scientific community and government. A recent development to improve inter-ministerial coordination on R&I has been the setting up of the Intra-governmental Committee on R&I.
These structural changes reflect a new commitment on the part of the government to strengthen the role and contribution of R&I to policy development and implementation in a broad range of sectors including the environment, energy, transport, roads, health, education, industry, enterprise, ICT, competitiveness, among others. In order to spearhead a dedicated set of measures to this effect, MCST was tasked to develop a long-term strategic plan for more business-oriented R&I focused on a set of well-defined priorities or niche areas.
Based on a wide process of stakeholder consultations, MCST developed the new Strategic Research and Innovation Plan entitled “Building and Sustaining the R&I Enabling Framework”, which was recently approved by the government. Over a three-year timeframe, the plan sets out a strategy for boosting the public spend on R&I to 0.75 per cent of GDP by 2010. Beyond defining the focus and priorities for public sector investments, the plan elaborates more strategic governance approaches, including a vision for “Research and Innovation at the heart of the Maltese economy to support value-added growth and wealth” and a set of strategic principles.
For the first time, we have a long-term R&I strategy, which focuses investments on a defined set of four key priorities, namely energy and the environment, ICT, value-added manufacturing, and health and biotechnology. The new priorities for business-oriented R&I, defined within the plan, and the strategic principles are set to take immediate effect on government R&I investments as they already provide the framework and focus for the re-launched National R&I Programme and have influenced the selection criteria for the current call for proposals.
Another important new feature of the R&I plan is the fact that it introduces a number of targets together with key performance indicators for the human capital base in science, engineering and technology, industry-academia collaboration, current and future R&I capacity and growth and wealth creation.
The plan maps out a total of 66 recommendations, addressing a range of demand and supply-side, direct and indirect measures which fall into four broad categories: leveraging R&I in Business, R&I in the Public Sector, R&I in Academia and enhancing Entrepreneurship and Science Popularisation and Education.
The full implications of the plan as a major driver for building Malta’s capacities in R&I have yet to be fully realised in 2007 when the full package of measures is to be launched.
The new plan features a strong internationalisation element through a major new initiative, EuroMedITI, The Euro-Mediterranean Initiative for Technology and Innovation. EuroMedITI is a business-driven initiative aimed at facilitating knowledge flows and exchanges between the North and South of Europe, extending to the southern Mediterranean. The prime focus will be on the development, adaptation, prototyping, and dissemination of innovating technologies to address the specific needs of the Mediterranean region and to take into account the particular cultural and climatic context.
The initiative will take the form of collaborative projects involving networks of R&D and business partners, thus fostering cooperation, enabling transfer of knowledge and mobilising human resources, including business persons, researchers, academics, and students. EuroMedITI will provide a strong support infrastructure by supplying knowledge of the Mediterranean market, facilitating network formation, and providing access to finance, thus enabling rapid development of projects and quick deployment to market, and assuring profitability.
EuroMedITI is expected to generate important services including training, applied research and development, and an incubation mechanism to promote commercialisation of new technologies. Initially it will focus on four technology sectors of relevance to the Mediterranean, namely: renewable energies; water and environmental technologies; information and communication technology and marine technologies are envisaged, although other niche areas could be considered. EuroMedITI aims to exploit the use of new ICT-based intelligent services, remote working and new media to enhance its productivity and impact.
The new R&I Plan will also provide a strong boost to science, engineering and technology by introducing a number of measures to improve policy coordination in long-term human resources planning, the teaching of S&T disciplines, and the launch of a 20-year science popularisation strategy. In particular, closer liaison is recommended between MCST and the National Commission for Higher Education.
As I have already mentioned, all these initiatives fall within the spectrum of priorities outlined in the National Reform Programme. The review of the Lisbon strategy carried out in 2004 highlighted the fact that countries with a high rate of consistent R&I expenditure over a period of time achieved stronger economic activity and sustained GDP growth, together with a better quality of life. As we strive to improve our competitiveness both globally as well as at a European Union Level, we shall strive to reach the targets we set ourselves.
The first programme report that we have now forwarded to the European Commission confirms that we have made significant progress in improving the state of public finances, the competitiveness of our economy, our environment, the employment rate and as I already mentioned, research and innovation planning. The latter especially can only mean good news for you students because new opportunities which until recently were only achievable abroad will be available locally.
Censu Galea is Competitiveness and Communications Minister