R&D LINKS VITAL
The Global Research Council provides an avenue for countries to enhance the quality of research
IN today’s interconnected world, global cooperation in research is increasingly the norm rather than an exception. Seeking to promote quality research worldwide, the Global Research Council (GRC) was launched in May 2012 in Washington DC based on a proposal by the US National Science Foundation.
It is a virtual organisation, comprising the heads of science and engineering funding agencies from around the world, dedicated to promote data sharing and best practices for high-quality collaboration. It has a long-term objective of fostering multilateral research and collaboration across continents to benefit both developing and developed nations.
In just over six years, the GRC leadership has successfully expanded cooperation from 20 to 65 countries. Malaysia is a founding member. The GRC meets annually and the latest meeting was in Moscow on May 15. Malaysia had the honour of hosting its regional Asia-Pacific meeting in 2016 and currently sits on its governing board.
The worldwide surge in R&D investments in recent years presents a great opportunity for countries large and small to work in concert across national borders. Such cooperation can enhance the quality of research, reduce duplication, increase proposal development, create partnerships, attract research funding, increase institutional competitiveness, and address issues and barriers that can be solved only by working together.
All countries need to either join these efforts and keep up or risk being left behind economically. And research funding agencies have a big responsibility.
The availability of highly qualified researchers is essential to innovation and promoting the scientific and technological development of a country.
Here’s a snapshot of the world scientific community and it is helpful to appreciate our place in it:
In 2013, the Unesco Science Report 2030 reported there were 7.8 million full-time (or equivalent) researchers. That works out to 1,083 per 1 million inhabitants, or about 0.1 per cent of the global population.
The Big Five — the European Union (EU), China, United States, Japan, and Russia — account for 72 per cent of researchers worldwide. The US and China alone account for more than one third.
Incidentally, these countries also produce the most research publications — roughly 34 per cent, 20 per cent, 25 per cent, 6.0 per cent and 2.0 per cent, respectively.
With roughly 2,600 researchers per million people (2013), Malaysia is well behind South Korea (8,329), Singapore (7,247) and Japan (7,019), but well ahead of Vietnam (1,170), and Thailand (769).
By looking at the big figures associated with research in different countries, it is not difficult to understand why such countries give considerable significance to research. Russia, for example, funds 16,000 research projects annually, conducted by 50,000 researchers.
South Korea’s National Research Foundation receives annually about 80,000 proposals from universities and research institutes.
Estimated global gross expenditure on research and development (GERD) is US$1.48 trillion (expressed in purchasing power parity).
World shares of GERD for the EU, China, US, Japan, and Russia were about 22 per cent, 19 per cent, 17 per cent, 9.0 per cent and 6.0 per cent, respectively.
High-income economies continue to generate the bulk of global R&D expenditure. In fact, the G20 countries account for 87 per cent of the world’s researchers, 92 per cent of global research expenditure and 94 per cent of the world’s scientific publications.
In contrast, as recently reported in this column, the 47 Least Developed Countries, with a population of close to one billion, contributed less than 0.4 per cent of the world’s total scientific publications in 2016.
Besides GERD, another useful yardstick is the ratio of the level of financial resources devoted to R&D as a share of gross domestic product (GDP).
The 2013-2014 figures show spending on R&D activities by the EU, China, US, Japan and Russian Federation were roughly 2.0 per cent, 2.0 per cent, 3.0 per cent, 4.0 per cent and 1.0 per cent, respectively.
Malaysia’s R&D investment of 1.3 per cent of GDP in 2015 is commendable but is still lower than the world average — roughly 1.78 per cent.
There’s a lot to be gained by being a member of the GRC. The council plays a crucial role in promoting collaboration between nations by creating, for example, standards and basic principles for “merit review” of research, also referred to as “peer review”.
Such efforts are intended to provide agreement on core principles necessary for a rigorous and transparent review system, and are thus a basis for fostering and facilitating international cooperation among funding agencies worldwide.
Recent economic headwinds in Malaysia may have caused a slowdown in R&D funding. However, it is important for Malaysia to achieve an R&D intensity of at least 2.0 per cent of the GDP by 2025, recognising the importance of this investment in pursuit of the country’s socio-economic well-being and future sustainability.
The availability of highly qualified researchers is essential to innovation and promoting the scientific and technological development of a country.
The writer represents Asia-Pacific on the Governing Board of the
Global Research Council, and is Joint-Chairman of the Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology (MIGHT)