Crest set to launch third phase next year
KUALA LUMPUR: The Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science and Technology Centre (Crest), a Khazanah Nasional Bhd co-initiative, is set to launch its third phase next year.
Within this phase, Crest will look at ways to further push the electrical and electronics (E&E) industry to contribute to the multiplier effects it promised to bring.
“We have created clusters and are creating a nice funnel. Phase 3 is about translating the technology and intellectual property into the marketplace,” said its chief executive officer Jaffri Ibrahim, who was quoted in “Pushing North”, the magazine that was circulated at the Khazanah Megatrends Forum 2017, here, yesterday.
Jaffri said at this stage, intellectual property and more financing sources was crucial to take the research outcome to the next stage and, thus, the need for Crest to reinvent itself to attract more funding, either through banks, crowdfunding or venture capitalists.
Crest’s first phase (2012 to 2014) saw the firm mostly pushing multiple industry-driven research and development (R&D) projects and managing the R&D grants given by the government.
Crest had also supported some 13 startups involved in the Internet of Things, integrated circuit design, industry robotics and e-business during this phase.
One of these companies was doing integrated circuit design work for firms in China and the United States.
Crest is currently at the end of Phase 2 (2013 to 2017), where it had deepened its focus on specific technology cluster and collaboration.
“The three clusters we focused on were light emitting diode, integrated circuit design and embedded systems,” said Jaffri.
“We identified key strategies around the clusters and formulated a strategy to tie everyone together and have them point in the same direction.”
Crest had this year alone helped to implement 10 projects with a collective estimated value of RM58.2 million. It has a total of 115 projects approved and 38 completed since its launch in 2012.
Crest had committed RM39 million in R&D grants with the industries impacted subsequently contributing RM60 million in economic value. Lidiana Rosli