SCIENCE, technology and innovation (STI) must converge with economy and finance, geopolitics, society and culture to fuel a robust ideation process for the nation’s socio economic transformation.
This is the key takeaway within Science Outlook 2017, the recently unveiled second edition of a flagship initiative by the Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM), which presents an independent review of key trends in STI in Malaysia and which aims to provide evidence-based insights and new perspectives on the Malaysian STI landscape.
ASM president Professor Datuk Dr Asma Ismail said results from the findings called for transformative thinking, growth mindset, integrated planning and inclusive implementation.
“Malaysia’s aspiration to be an advanced nation requires all sectors to have the capacity for developing knowledge capital to fuel Malaysia’s drive to be an advanced economy.
“Industry 4.0 has made it more urgent for stakeholders to collaborate in making sure that the country is capable of coping with potential socioeconomic uncertainties brought about by technological upheavals to the global economy.
“The country’s progressive and innovative society must have the necessary STI robustness for the country to navigate the deep waters of knowledge-based economy for sustained growth and inclusive development,” she said.
Driven by an extensive network of ASM fellows and associates, Science Outlook 2017 tracked where Malaysia is in STI as a nation, identified gaps in relation to where it wants to be in the future, studied best practices and transformation trajectories of other competitive nations, as well as prescriptions to ensure Malaysia’s aspirations can be realised.
The report found that coordination of the ecosystem in Malaysia’s STI landscape remains a challenge.
Also highlighted was the fact that although Malaysia enjoys a reasonably good position in global competitiveness — holding the 23rd position in the Global Competitiveness Index, 2017-2018, in innovation indices under Pillar 10 on Product Innovation — Malaysia is ranked 130th out of 137 countries.
Science Outlook 2017 chairman Professor Datuk Dr Halimaton Hamdan said the multitude of actors in the national STI landscape has to be revisited.
“Too many actors and funding agencies become self-competing, hence diluting available funding and resources. The weak link between the federal and state governments on the STI issues must also be bridged to cascade policies and decision for effective transformation of the nation towards joining the paradigm shift towards a knowledge-based economy,” she said.
As for the country’s low rank in innovation, Halimaton said part of the problem lay in the fact that little emphasis was being put on experimental development.
She said research and development (R&D) done in Malaysia was not industry-led, as most of the country’s researchers were concentrated in institutions of higher learning.
“If you look at countries like France and Japan, they are now spending more on the experimental part of research, which takes findings from the fundamentals to commercialisation and on to application.
“In advanced countries, they do research at all levels, not only at the university-level. Even industries are doing research for product development.
“Researchers in our country are mostly concentrated in universities, and do not receive much funding. The industry should support experimental research at their industries. Researchers at universities should be engaged to do this research for them,” she said.
The Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) talent pipeline also remains a concern.
Halimaton said there was a decline in interest in enrolling in STEM and related fields, and that the quality, based on major national level examination results, was about average.
“Is the STEM field unattractive, or is the pedagogy losing touch with the learning style of millennials? Our survey showed that almost 47 per cent of STEM teachers from secondary schools had not received STEM-related training. Future jobs will be technology-based. There are also critical STEM-related jobs which may not be filled by national talent, since the numbers are declining.
“But then again, is our industry ready to hire STEM talent? With 98.5 per cent of our industry being small and medium enterprises (SMEs), most do not adopt technology and do not invest in R&D. Only six per cent are creators.
“The productivity of our SMEs is low; the contribution to our gross domestic product is less than 40 per cent, and most SMEs do not have the capacity to hire knowledge workers,” she said.
STI enculturation — the process through which science culture become integrated in the mind and habits of the people — was something the report focused on. STI culture includes scientific literacy, public understanding, acceptance and awareness of science and scientific methods, as well as the applications of science in day-to-day life.
The report found that the Malaysian young public’s STI literacy benchmarked against other countries are below the international average. A STI enculturation survey showed that Malaysian adults generally scored below the international average, lower than the adults in most developed countries.
Science culture is highly influenced by the level of education, mass media coverage and cultural mentality. Halimaton said that it was clear that more was needed to make science mainstream in Malaysian culture.
“STI literacy and awareness among Malaysians is low, although engagement is quite satisfactory based on visits to STI spaces. But the content of exhibits can be further updated to follow global trends to increase STI literacy. The STI content in media and the avenue for science communication can be further improved,” she said.
According to the report, Malaysia has also yet to fully optimise its collaboration in science diplomacy.
“Globally, Malaysia and prominent Malaysians have stamped their mark in international platforms. However, output through collaborations show that these avenues are not fully leveraged and internal strategising between international divisions of various government ministries needs strengthening to capitalise on opportunities to form collaborations. Tying these loose ends should propel Malaysia’s STI ecosystem and innovation to greater heights,” said Halimaton.