Formation of startups and new companies
Commercial exploitation of science, technology, and novelty
System of laws, regulations, strategies, and funding priorities
Discovery and creation of new knowledge of the natural world
Technological Advancements in the world.
By: Tan Sri Omar Abdul Rahman
The government’s science and technology (S&T) apparatus is now in active consultations to formulate the third national S&T policy (NSTP3) and I have been involved in some and benefitted from them.
In an earlier article (NST 9/7/11), I had briefly described the two previous policies and given some thoughts on what the essentials of the NSTP3 should be. I am now offering further thoughts on the subject.
However, let us first briefly revisit the evolution of science policies in general. Initially it was just a “science policy” emphasizing the need to do “good science”. Then it was an “S&T policy”, linking knowledge (science) do its application (technology). Much later there was a move for a policy for “science for technology for development” focusing on harnessing S&T for national development. This gave rise to the concept of science for development (role of S&T in implementing development) and development for science (measures to strengthen S&T capacity). Currently it is “science, technology and innovation (STI)” policy, implying that doing good science is not good enough. Science must translate into innovative technologies at the marketplace. In other words STI must be an instrument of economic transformation program (ETP), (STI for policy) and in turn STI must be strengthened so it can deliver (Policy for STI).
In this connection, it is important to recognize the two crucial parallel systems of research, development and commercialization (R,D&C) and STI. Research gives knowledge (science), development results in technology which becomes innovation when applied or commercialized.
By:Athar Osama
Published on SciDev.Net on 12 September 2012
Efforts to build innovation systems are too government-centric and tend to ignore a key ingredient — the private sector, says Athar Osama.
Recent years have seen a number of Islamic countries embarking on efforts to create and strengthen innovation ‘ecosystems’. But their delivery record has been mixed.
A couple of years ago, Malaysia created Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM), under the Prime Minister’s office, to bridge the gaps in its innovation system. And plans are afoot in the United Arab Emirates to create an innovation agency to supplement or replace its Technology Development Co...
Growth of Science & Innovation in the Muslim World
By Marianne De Nazareth, Freelance Journalist - India
Published on OnIslam on 08 August 2012 00:00
When they return they get meager salaries, as low as $500 a month, so they are forced to take side jobs to survive.
We have a lot of stereotypes among of which is that Muslim women are repressed and do not get a chance to reach their full potential in their chosen fields, especially in the science fora. The session on the growth of science in the Islamic world, at the Euroscience Open Forum 2012 in Dublin, sounded intriguing and interesting for me as a a woman science journalist.
The topic being...
By: Tan Sri Dr. Omar Abdul Rahman
At the 34th convocation of UPM in October 2010 in my “ucapan balas” for the conferment of emeritus professorship of the university, I had suggested a defined new role for our public universities in line with current emphasis in national development. Because they are expected to, and in the position of contributing to the government’s socio-economic transformation program, I had suggested they be called transformational universities (TUs). What prompted me to do so was also the active discourse on the changing role of universities that has been going on for a number of years in academic circles in the West.
For example, during a...
By:Athar Osama
15 March 2012 | EN
The Muslim world and donors should use nongovernmental networks to nurture the dormant seeds of entrepreneurship, says Athar Osama.
Entrepreneurship and innovation may look like inherently Western ideas in the twenty-first century. Yet they have been part and parcel of Muslim societies even before the heyday of the earliest Islamic Empire.
Mecca, the birthplace of Islam, was long known as being on a major trade route in ancient Arabia. In later years, frontier cities of the rapidly expanding Islamic Empire became centres of commerce and learning, and it was at these meeting points of civilisations that scientific knowledge flo...
The Islamic world’s current science effort is on life support and without major ‘surgery’ could be yet another policy failure, says Athar Osama.
In 2007, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) created the Science, Technology and Innovation Organisation (STIO) to jumpstart science cooperation among its 57 member countries. Three years later, a founding meeting approved an annual budget of US$70 million, with four founding members — Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and and Syria — committing US$5 million each to the budget.
To date, 20 countries have joined STIO — but none has honoured its financial commitment, according to the organisatio...
By Zakri Abdul Hamid –
Science Adviser to the Prime Minister of Malaysia
For Malaysia, the past three decades have been a period of rapid and sustained growth. Measuring growth with the traditional Gross Domestic Product yardstick, Malaysia’s economy has increased more than a hundredfold. Over the past four decades, we have averaged nearly 7% annual growth. Poverty rates have fallen from 49%, to less than 4%. Per-capita GDP has risen from US$370, to more than US$9,000.
This growth has been matched by a fundamental change in the structure of our economy. Like many Asian countries, we have moved from a basis of agriculture and raw commodities to a multi-sector eco...
By: Dr. Athar Osama
Muslim-Science.Com met with Tan Sri Dr. Omar Abdur Rahman, Mahathir’s Science Advisor for over a decade and half and, the “prime mover” behind Mahathir Mohammed’s vision of a Knowledge-driven Malaysia. A deeply humble man, Tan Sri Omar insists that Mahathir was a science policymaker par excellence in his own right and that he would hardly have needed a science advisor. However, he played a critical role in providing scientific credibility to Mahathir’s plans and helping the Prime Minister reach out to the scientific community to build support for his policies.
As Malaysia’s first and longest serving Science Advisor – a position t...
