Article

A critical look at Hi-tech R&D Adrian Muscat 18 May 2006

Research and Development in Malta is a slow but steadily growing business and local engineers are at the heart of it. Over the past decade we have witnessed the development of novel commercial products and services, not to mention the often unrecognised contribution that our engineers have been giving to product and process development in the hi-tech manufacturing industry. Additionally academic and research institutions, SMEs as well as independent researchers have been successful in securing research funds from abroad. The effect of a critical mass gaining momentum is now being felt and it is very important that this critical mass is nurtured so as to sustain its growth and activity. It is for this reason that over 150 engineers met to take stock, discuss and debate the main local activities and challenges, such as the case of applied and basic research in a small island state, human resources availability, university-industry links, public policies and hi-tech entrepreneurship. To answer these questions engineers from local as well as foreign speakers from both academia and industry were invited to deliver presentations and case studies. The first inevitable question to ask is whether our micro country can sustain an economically viable R&D industry. Dr Claude Wehenkel, president of the Henri Tudor Public Research Centre, was the first contributor and cited Luxembourg as an example. His first point was that applied R&D is the main priority and aired his doubts on the sustainability of basic research in a small country. He also stressed that we should develop our own policies for our own needs and that we should prioritise on the sectors that are most important in our GDP. Dr Brian Warrington said that MCST is undergoing reform in order to take on its role as the leading catalyst agency for research, development and innovation. Dr Warrington highlighted our National Limitations that is the limited high-tech industry, weak entrepreneurship culture in academia, weak R&D culture in industry, lack of structured cooperation between academia and industry, and the weaknesses of our national R&D Policies, mainly insufficient funding and resources, lack of focus resulting in dilution of available funds and the over-emphasis on academic research. Dr Warrington then described how the new approach will promote applied research, but not at the cost of basic research, Mr Karl Schmidt-Reindl, Franhofer Venture Capital Group, stressed on the need of having locally a mix of entrepreneurship, application oriented research centres and universities, and infrastructure to support start-ups. He cited the 2-6-2 rule which indicates that 20 per cent of startups do not need any help, however 60 per cent do and this is where the infrastructure is so important. Therefore the country needs to offer infrastructure, qualification and skills, access to partners and funding, market intelligence, and a lobby for Start-ups with quality certification. Ing. Evan Stringos presented the Malta Enterprise portfolio of programmes designed to support enterprises to grow through innovation with special emphasis to the Eureka programme. It was noted that the take up of research and innovation funds and schemes by micro-enterprises and SMEs is very slow. Prof. Maurice Grech showed how past investment has helped the Faculty of Engineering to add research activities to its portfolio of services. Today there are 22 research projects funded by the EU, 16 funded by the university, three funded by the RTDI fund and 11 by industry. The current projects amount to euro2.1m, while the cumulative projects over the past six years amount to euro9m. The projects include research in ICT, aerospace, biotechnology, robotics and corrosion prevention. Prof. Grech said that the university is not sufficiently promoting its activities and capabilities to industry and this led to the inevitable topic of University-Industry links. Dr Wehenkel said this is necessary but tricky and requires trust building. Dr Warrington also mentioned the lack of structured cooperation between academia and industry. Another goal of the conference was to show that the number of jobs in engineering design and development is on the increase and that the future seems bright in this respect. Dr Adrian Muscat presented results of a study carried out by the University of Malta that shows over 100 jobs and over 25 companies engaged in the area of electronics and software development. Of more interest is the fact that most companies have an expansion program for which they would like to recruit more MSc graduates as well as PhDs. The study also revealed that Malta is not making efficient use of its human capital. The majority of engineers that are employed in non R&D jobs would consider taking an R&D related job given the right conditions. Equally well was the response from students where the majority showed a huge interest in jobs within product and services development companies. Recruiting human resources is proving to be difficult and the local talent must be and is being augmented by foreign talent. The questions and comments that followed emphasised even more the shortage of human resources, both in numbers and qualification. Brain drain could also be a problem. Currently an increasing number of students are seeking employment and postgraduate studies abroad to realise their dreams. Salaries are also an issue and jobs in R&D are fetching higher salaries than other jobs in engineering. Companies who kept the same salary scales are struggling for employee retention. Dr Brian Warrington cited the lack of opportunities for postgraduate studies as one reason why we are losing on human resources and MCST is planning an S&T popularisation programme including incentives for S&T undergraduates, S&T conversion courses, bursaries for S&T research. Prof Paul Micallef added that university has already started with conversion courses in ICT. Dr Anton Bartolo introduced the up-coming applied research centre, EuroMedITI. Its primary scope is to “engage European and Mediterranean Businesses and Applied R&D Entities for the development, customisation and deployment of technologies which have a special relevance to the Euro-Mediterranean Region”. The emphasis on applied research and projects that EuroMedITI will be involved in should be well defined, with a clear business plan, addressing specific technology opportunities in the region, involving a network of partners and could be developed, prototyped and tested in Malta for dissemination to region. Dr Bartolo cited examples of sectors in renewable energies and ICT, such as a Photovoltaic Solar Park (showcase and live development project) and outsourcing Platform in ICT. Cross-sectoral projects are also in the plan such as “Sustainable Integrated Resource Management to Support the Growth of the Tourist Industry”. Initially, EuroMedITI will provide market knowledge and specialised services to facilitate formation of partner networks and financing. It will include a training capacity aimed primarily at assisting businesses to access and succeed in the regional market, and will gradually build a growing network of participating business and R&D entities. In the long-term EuroMedITI aims at building a local technical capacity in each of the sectors to support design and implementation of the projects. EuroMedITI’s success depends, among other factors, on its ability to engage Maltese entrepreneurs, researchers and financiers in the process. Ing. Michael Bonello discussed the topic of R&D and funding from the perspective of a young Maltese enterprising engineer. Dr Bonello emphasised the importance of having quality partners and of keeping the project impact on the end-user in mind. The advantages of EU funds are networking and therefore more contracts and if the project is successful there is financial reward through the manufacturing and marketing of the technology developed. Ing Bonello cited some interesting examples on network sensors from projects where his company was a partner. Ing. Antoine Bonello described how his team at Trelleborg designed an o-ring for fuel injectors using Six sigma, which is a problem solving methodology based on statistics. Ing. Edward Myers described the contribution of ST Microelectronics (Malta) to Integrated Circuit Packaging and the engineering methodologies being adopted, mainly state-of-the-art computational modelling and experimental techniques. Ing Myers emphasised the requirement of postgraduates with deeper and specialised understanding of theoretical aspects in this type of industry. Dr Nigel Kissaun described another research project on auto-focusing miniature cameras that ST (Malta) has been engaged in. Dr Kissaun also discussed the subject of a multinational company adding higher value functions locally. He reported that our cost advantages are only with western Europe and that our current engineering and technology human resource pool can be a limitation. Overall the conference highlighted that as a nation we should be more open to new ideas, new technology and innovation. We should be less insular in our approach and look at collaborative arrangements with foreign partners and target markets beyond our shores. We need to be ready to invest in science and engineering human resources. Dr Ing. Muscat is the vice-president of the Chamber of Engineers