Ruling Elites Must Foster a Need-based research culture in the country

Research is a pre-requisite for development. That’s why research and development (R&D) in any progressive state and society go parallel with each other. Only those countries are now called the developing states which focused on research to strengthen their institutions. Unfortunately, research was not the priority in Pakistan, as less than 0.16% of its GDP is spent on research.

Despite various initiatives taken to strengthen the technology triangle, the linkages between universities, industry, and R&D institutes have not achieved the level where these could enhance innovation driven economic growth. Their work has not been need-driven. Resultantly, Commersialisation of research and industrial competitiveness have remained below the mark. Coordination among academia, industry, and policymaking institutions remains limited.

I served in the National Institute of Electronics (NIE) from 1985 to early 1991as Director Technical Services and Coordination. The Institute was under the Ministry of Science and Technology and so were other similar research organizations. My selection was made through an open competition. The research staff worked under the Director-General. We were working on a few projects related to industry and defence. Once a Chinese delegation comprising technologists visited the NIE. In their report to the Ministry of Science and Technology, they emphasized the need for academia-industry collaboration to upgrade the research work in the Institute and move towards commercialization to meet the needs of the industry. Unfortunately, none of these projects were completed where these could be commercialized till I retired in early 1991 on attaining the age of superannuation. What is the state of research now in NIE, I am unable to comment as I have no information of it.

In 1991, through an open competition, I was selected to the Prime Minister’s Committee for Research and Analysis (PMCRA) as research programme (projects) Coordinator. The Committee was headed by Dr. Ijaz Shafi Gilani, a very competent researcher and currently the Chairman of GALLUP Pakistan. The mission of the Committee was, ‘Providing leadership role in encouraging greater competence and accountability in functional departments through technically sophisticated research work in the Prime Mister’s Secretariate’. Let me say here that the PMCRA was not an entity like the Indian Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) whereas its work was to undertake primary and secondary research and submit its reports to the prime minister. Often, he used to meet the prime minister in person for briefings.
In 1992, the PMCRA prepared a project proposal, titled: The Technology Triangle. The objective was to identify collaboration challenges and weaknesses among academia, industry, R&D institutes, and policymakers besides suggesting practical steps needed to strengthen these linkages to achieve the objectives.

The Ministries of Science and Technology, Education, Petroleum and Natural Resources, as well as the University Grant Commission (later named as Higher Education Commission) were the coordinating agencies for this project. The same year, the then federal minister for education invited a two-member team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) USA. The team held discussions with the agencies concerned. The PMCRA asked the MIT Team to:

• Evaluate engineering education in Pakistan for its relevance to the development of industry;
• Suggest mechanisms for compatibility between the goals of higher education and technology, the industry, and the government;
• Recommend steps needed to strengthen linkages between the government, universities, R&D institutes, and industry;
• Suggest mechanisms to reorientate R&D organizations to achieve the objectives;
• Look into the option if privatization of R&D institutes with or without government regulatory role be an appropriate solution to the problem.

As a follow-up, in September/October 1992, a second MIT team with expertise in contract research arrived in Pakistan for two weeks. It visited universities, R&D institutes, and private industrial units and held discussions at the working level. The team was also provided input by the PMCRA. Meanwhile, when the team was in the process of preparing its report at MIT, the PMCRA was dissolved by the new prime minister on the recommendations of the bureaucracy. The final report of the MIT team, however, could not be accessed.

Over the years, some attempts appeared to have been made to create better linkages between universities, industry, R&D institutes and policymaking institutions, but in vain. There is very limited engagement between these organizations. Knowledge transfer and commercialization of research output have been below the mark. Research in universities and the industry requirements have little in common. Industry is not willing to fund academic research. Skilled workers continue to migrate to foreign lands in search of opportunities and better future. As such Pakistan is faced with unprecedented brain drain with millions of educated youths and talented professionals have migrated abroad during the last two and a half decades. We continue to depend on foreign technologies instead of allocating financial resources for indigenously developing evolving technologies.

To meet these challenges, Pakistan should first develop a comprehensive long-term plan to strengthen linkages between universities, industry, R&D institutes and the policymaking institutions. R&D budget should be two per cent of the GDP. Universities and industry should join hands to undertake projects. One-year industry internship should be compulsory for engineering graduates to qualify for degrees. Industry must hire university graduates to work on projects that would commercialize their projects. Outstanding graduates should be sent abroad for advanced training in the relevant fields. Universities, industry, R&D institutes, and government agencies should form councils to meet regularly to take stock of the developments and decide the future programmes. Above all, our successive governments must foster the need-based research culture in the country.

(The writer is a Distinguished Advisor Emeritus at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute Islamabad. The views expressed in this article are his own and do not necessarily relate to the Institute.)