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Opportunities and Challenges for Innovations in Q atar

2014; Wiley; Volume: 105; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/muwo.12079

1478-1913

Rabi H. Mohtar,

Socioeconomic Development in MENA

Innovation requires a culture that supports creativity. Investment in research and development (R&D) is a prerequisite for creating such a culture, but is not sufficient, by itself, to do so. To help form a baseline for this discussion, some examples are presented of cultures deemed relatively successful at innovation in the 2013 Global Innovation Index (GII). The GII is an annual publication featuring, among others, a mixed indicator that ranks countries in terms of their enabling environment toward innovation and actual innovation outputs. Primary ranking criteria include: institutions, human capital and research, infrastructure, market & business sophistication, as well as knowledge, technology, and creative outputs. Each criterion is divided to additional categories for which three to six indicators are included. The GII 2013 index placed Singapore in 8th position, and ranked, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar at 38, 42, 43, respectively. 1 This paper explores the elements essential for the creation of a culture of innovation: resources, investment in R&D infrastructure, freedom to publish, freedom of access to knowledge and data, academic freedom, creation of a critical mass, developing local capacity, and most importantly, though often forgotten, collaboration with industry and manufacturing to support the development of technology. Conclusions will be drawn based on lessons learned in a number of countries, as well as from the author's personal experience, as a scientist and administrator of R&D in Qatar. What is a culture of innovation, and how is it accomplished? What is the role of academic freedom and cultural transparency in innovation? How are innovation and scientific development sustained, and what is the role of the expatriate (retention of talents)? What lessons can be learned from the experiences of other countries (UAE and Singapore as examples)? Are there policies, education, reforms, incentives that GCC should provide to promote innovations? What is the social and cultural fabric of innovation? Can innovation be seeded and its outcomes harvested? Looking at the UAE, the Emirate's rulers selected a diversified development model for Dubai in an effort to ensure a unique regional position: focusing first on offering a regional transport hub and tourist destination, while only in the second phase was the focus adjusted to creating and strengthening needed infrastructure for knowledge-based industries. 2 The government's Vision 2010 plan (approved in 2002) drove the Emirate towards a knowledge-based economy, and the Dubai Strategic Plan 2015 (approved in 2009) aimed at achieving social, economic, and environmental sustainability. Under the framework of the Vision 2010 master development plan, a number of mega-projects, devoted mainly to knowledge-based activities and innovation, were introduced. During this period, knowledge-based industries and services such as tourism, financial services, manufacturing and transport, and storage and communication has accounted for a large share of GDP (4% in 1995, 11.3% in 2000, 14.2% in 2011, and 14%, in 2012). TECOM Investments, a member of Dubai Holding established in 2005, is now a global company dedicated to the development of knowledge industries and business growth. Some 4,500 businesses have taken part in these clusters and parks, not only because of the state-of-the-art infrastructure available, but also as a result of generous incentives provided by the government, including tax incentives (corporate, import and export, personal income) and the possibility of full repatriation of capital. Dubai has successfully attracted bright minds and investors from around the globe. Not less, the success can also point to an effective brain drain preventative: Dubai Internet City (sometimes referred as the “Middle Eastern Silicon Oasis”) currently employs 25,000 knowledge workers with 182 different nationalities. Dubai has also emerged as a dynamic financial hub, hosting many financial, legal service and insurance firms in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), a free trade zone regulated by its own independent commercial and civil laws and under the United Arab Emirate (UAE) constitution. DIFC provides a competitive operating environment and offers many advantages: the possibility of full foreign ownership, a 0% tax rate on income and profits (guaranteed for a period of 50 years from 2004), and no restrictions on the repatriation of income and profits. These regulations have opened the door for financial institutions to begin introducing financial innovations to the market and serve to make Dubai a model for its neighbors. Nevertheless, a sustainable high growth trajectory needs policies that also intensively explore new areas, notably in high-tech and R&D activities, and develop top-notch higher education programmers to educate a cadre of highly skilled people. The GII 2013 index ranked Saudi Arabia at 42 — ahead of Italy, Poland, Turkey and China — despite a low score on the innovation output index (98). While Saudi Arabia is doing well in attracting and retaining innovation factors (human skills, government support and investment in R&D, increasing knowledge through education-industry linkages), there remains a need for combination of right policies and good human capital to improve “creative outcomes”. 3 Singapore was ranked by the GII in 8th position overall, (much stronger than UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar at 38, 42, 43, respectively) but down from 3rd position in 2012. Although in part the loss of 5 points is due to some adjustment in the framework of evaluation, it remains a notable leader in the innovation index and one of the four economies considered to be at the efficient frontier. Singapore's strengths are across the board in the Input Sub-Index: Institutions (7th), Human capital and research (3rd, after Finland and the Republic of Korea), Infrastructure (6th), Market sophistication (5th), and Business sophistication (1st). 4 During the 1960s and 70s, Singapore took the track of export promotion industrialization as its key to prosperity. It invited foreign multinational corporation (MNCs) with the technology and knowledge the fledgling state needed to achieve its innovation goals. The industrial transformation policy was guided and regulated by the state as part of a concerted nation-building project. The national innovation system (NIS) that emerged in Singapore had a clearly stated objective of promoting technological capability through enhanced process innovation. As Mathews and Cho (1997) have shown, technology and resource leveraging was the core principle of state industrial policy, with the intention of augmenting the manufacturing industrial sector. Local firms developed learning capability, and the links between the actors of innovation were hierarchical. Government took up the responsibility to facilitate funds for R&D, education, and infrastructural development. More recently, innovation in Singapore is transitioning from a vertical to a more horizontal mode involving the state, but also incorporating industry and the academy. A key facet of this transition is attributed to the university sector, which fosters innovation, enterprise, and entrepreneurship. Although the government of Singapore professes a commitment to implementing reforms by loosening its control over social, political, and economic spaces, it remains to be determined to what extent this transition to a less hierarchical model will be effective. A crucial issue is independent thinking, versus allowing the state to decide: is it possible to construct a knowledge-based society, when conformity is the norm for social action, or as technologies become more speculative, should governments spread their investments more widely to maintain economic fortunes in a volatile economic environment? The more general lesson that states could learn from Singapore is that there is no single “right” innovation policy that government planners can follow, rather they must be nimble enough to cope with uncertainties related to industrial planning in a world driven by innovation and change. 5 The state of Qatar has seen unprecedented growth and infrastructure development over the last 20 years. Qatar's population has doubled three times in the last 10 years, from 620,000 thousand in 2001, to a population of 2 million in 2013 (Figure 1). 6 The average annual GDP growth in the GCC was 4.7 %, compared to 2.8 % global GDP growth (Qatar GDP: http://www.tradingeconomics.com/qatar/gdp) Qatar population growth (Qatar Demographics, 2013) Political Will: the leadership in Qatar has been committed to a knowledge-based economy for over a decade. This is evidenced by the educational reform that the country has undergone, including the establishment of Qatar Foundation and Education City over 15 years ago. Continued support for knowledge-based economic initiatives is a testament to the will of the leadership and its commitment going forward. Capital Investment: National investment must be maintained for research and development to enable the creation of local solutions, thereby reducing dependency on imported or outsourced solutions. Qatar's national leadership has pledged to earmark 2.8 percent of its GDP (revenue) for R&D: this amounts to $ 2–3 billion. The Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) was created in 2006, as a national entity to fund and promote research in Qatar as well as scientific research cooperation both regionally and internationally. Over a period of 7 years, QNRF awarded a total of $650 millon in grants and included programs such as the Secondary School Research Experience Program, the Undergraduate Research Experience Program, the Junior Scientists Research Experience Program, the National Priorities Research Program, and the National Priorities Research Program — Exceptional Proposals. 7 Creation of Qatar Science and Technology Park (QSTP): QSTP was launched in 2005 as the national entity charged with applied research, innovation and entrepreneurship, delivering commercialized technologies in energy, environment, and health. 8 In 2012 QSTP was a home to 50 companies with about 1,000 staff. Research Intuitions: In 2005, following the successful launch of Education City, Qatar Foundation launched the Arab Expatriate Scientists Network to jumpstart research activities in Qatar. Two conferences were held, IQ 2006 and QFIRST 2007. 9 QFIRST 2007 conference outcomes included the development of research plans in three strategic areas: energy and environment, biomedical, and computing. The creation of three institutes was announced by Sheikh Mamad bin Khaifa Al-Thani, the Emir of the State of Qatar in 2007. Plans to establish a fourth institute for social sciences, arts and humanities are underway. Strategy for Increasing Research and Development Capacity: growth and development of the infrastructure for research is being hugely increased through a national research strategy and a dedicated national office for R&D, including the new research complex that will house the national institute and the research management staff in a planned 200,000 square meter research and development complex. Additionally, the Hamad Bin Khalifa University branch campuses are encouraged to expand on their original undergraduate missions toward increased research capacity and graduate education that will address the growing needs for local scientists. Each of the branch campuses has increased its research expenditure and built graduate programs in their own respective specialty fields. There is a growing recognition that research and development investment is a long-term goal and that building knowledge-based capacity takes time. Figure 2 illustrates the innovation value chain in Qatar starting from basic and applied research all the way to research deployments. The complementary roles for each of the phases and the corresponding organizations that lead in these phases were charted and emphasized in the recent development of the Qatar National Research Strategy (QNRS 2012). Innovation Value chain in Qatar In 2012, the Qatar National Research Strategywas launched by the Qatar Foundation to outline research priorities. 10 Qatar Foundation R&D led the effort to look carefully into national priorities, assess research priorities, obtain stakeholders' views, identify research potential and establish organizational structure for the research enterprise. QNRS identified 23 goals and 76 objectives that addressed five priority themes or pillars: research governance, energy and environment, computing and information technologies, health and social sciences, arts and humanities. The results and impact of the research enterprise will ultimately depend on moving research outcomes along the innovation value chain (Figure 2), beginning with basic and applied research, and continuing all the way to the development of intellectual property, deployment and commercialization, that is where feasible products exist. The final goal in this innovation chain is application and deployment to meet societal needs. In 2013, building on QNRS and inclusive stakeholder involvement, Qatar Foundation conducted further refinement of the research priorities through a grand challenges exercise. The QNRS priority areas were narrowed down to twelve, six, and finally three grand challenges, namely: water security, solar energy, and cyber security. These grand challenges helped focus research investment, in terms of research expenditure and hiring, to create a critical mass of human capital in national priority areas. The QNRS and the grand challenges exercise also helped identify research players: a key step in developing partnerships and alliances across research, academic, private and public sectors for each priority area. Leadership emerged from these exercises based on readiness and research capacity — both human and infrastructure. Accordingly, resources to achieve the national goals were effectively distributed and expectations realistically set. The QNRS research strategy included mapping of national capacity in order to identify the key elements of success: Institutional capacity for national entities and gaps in meeting the national goals to ensure proper allocation and utilization of resources and reduce risk of redundancy in infrastructure and programs. Curiosity Driven Research: while research alignment can be healthy for a small nation, extra care must be taken to maintain curiosity driven research in which innovation can be most fruitful and efficient. Funding outside the priority areas ensures a flow of ideas and diversity of opinions that enriches the research enterprise. It is important to distinguish between program duplication and project duplication: while the first is redundant and should be avoided, the second is not a cause for concern. Oftentimes, experiments and trials need to be duplicated to confirm outcomes; multiple people and research perspectives are needed to work on a subject to ensure a healthy and creative endeavor. What concerns the author is lack of cooperation, failure to coordinate, and incomplete alignment towards a clearly defined goal. While the earlier diffuses efforts, the latter is useful to maintain flow of ideas. Criteria for Success: no enterprise can be successful without establishing, measuring and assessing key criteria for success. These criteria must be clearly communicated to the entire research community. Collaboration: without links to the outside world, Qatar will not be able to achieve its priorities, thus, regional and international partnership are under development to complement existing, local research expertise. Qatar research enterprise has recognized the importance of collaborations and have been very successful in doing so. Numerous examples exists some of which are highlighted at QNRF website. 11 Industry's involvement in R&D in Qatar should be expanded in scope to include a wider spectrum of research topics. Joint research projects between scientists, academia and industry should be further encouraged and facilitated. The research integration across the innovation value chain (Figure 2) between research (basic and applied) and technology deployment is crucial for a successful knowledge — based journey. Such cooperation is not only fruitful, but can potentially create a more transparent culture of knowledge exchange between the two communities; science community and private sector. This continuum of innovation value chain and its role in building a knowledge-based economy is illustrated in Figure 3. Culture of Innovation: Research to Deployment Continuum Capacity Building must be inclusive of all talents of a society to enable the creation of a knowledge-based economy. The capacity training must include the physical, life, and social sciences, the management and commutation of the science, and the technical and administrative staff to runs the science administration. Vocational training must be part of capacity building and include the other Qatari talent that may not be qualified or interested in science and science management. Most current investments in Qatar focus on the top tier of the Qatari talent, leaving the majority of the talent behind, not taking advantage of an enormous natural resource: national efforts should focus on the majority of young Qataris and better integrate them into the workforce. Balance local and imported talent: In the journey toward a knowledge-based society, time is a very crucial factor. While developing local talent takes time, the country's aspiration to become a local hub for science and technology is very high. This reality necessitates reliance on external talents until local capacity is built. Slowing down the growth expectation in the R&D journey would ensure greater Qatari involvement, and enable more balance between nurturing local talent and importing expatriate talent into the research enterprise. Ensuring greater Qatari involvement in the research posts improves the long-term sustainability of the effort. This balance ensures that the culture of innovation is local and indigenous to the nation. While globalization has opened the door for cross-fertilization of ideas, the local culture in Qatar and the preservation of that culture remains a priority. This preservation must cut across all aspects of life, including innovation. Innovating on issues that are relevant to locals and that meet their uniqueness can be best achieved by local scientists. There is a potential for Arab expatriates across the world to augment this capacity, in the transition to full Qatari local capacity. Arab Expatriates tend to be a sustainable workforce: they share language and culture; many find Qatar an opportunity to achieve the long anticipated dream of brain gain in the region. This potential was behind the Qatari Leadership establishing the Qatar Arab Expatriate initiative that contributed to the establishment of the Qatar Research Institutes. 12 Values and respect: scientists and innovators, like all humans, need a culture that values their contribution and respects their added value to society. They need the recognition from the State that their work is valued and their contributions heard. Judgments: Experience shows that scientists and innovators are uniquely different when it comes to social behavior and conduct: they are, by nature, non-conformists. Society must refrain from passing judgment on expected social behavior and norms that scientist and innovators might not express. Freedom of expression and iteration: Innovation thrives in an atmosphere of freedom to express ideas and thoughts without having the innovator penalized for that expression. Seldom are the first ideas one thinks of successful: many good ideas will go through an iterative process of improvement/development. From a long list of ideas generated by innovators, a very short list will ultimately become technically or financially feasible. Innovators must be free to iterate without fear of penalty. Numbers matter: often a single idea will require interaction and iteration from a number of disciplines to see light. If this expertise is lacking, good ideas may not materialize. It is important to have innovators and scientists from different fields of science and alternative perspectives in order to enable the necessary cross-fertilization of ideas. Employment Stability: Scientists and innovators need the physical stability of long-term employment with social and health care benefits for themselves and their families. One reason for the tradition of the academic tenure in the United States and Europe is this. Professional Support: Professional and technical support is foundational to successful science and innovation. Professional attributes are not inherited, but acquired traits that successful institutions develop in their workforces. The professional values of these institutions drive their successes, and are based on mutual respect and the respective roles and responsibilities that each member of the organization has. Financial compensation, rewards and recognition: Recognizing success and promotion is essential. Financial compensation and recognition rewards drive many to excel. Financial compensation must be competitive to attract the best and brightest. Fair and transparent processes help create a healthy, competitive environment. Merit, not Entitlement: Societies at large and communities or families at home must work with their youth to create incentives and appetite for the betterment of self and society, negating the culture of entitlement. Social pressures at multiple levels make this task difficult: concerted efforts are necessary to achieve a balance between culturally acceptable security, care for family members and society at large, and feelings of entitlement to privileges as a “right”. While the first creates a strong sense of belonging and self-confidence, the second may result in abuse and lack of professional and personal achievement and creativity. Attracting strong, innovative talent is the first step in the innovation chain. Retaining these talents and making Qatar home for them is critical to sustaining the discovery enterprise. Empowering this resource by providing ownership of what scientists are doing offers motivation to become engaged in the decision making process regarding their future. Global resource management must evolve from industry's perceived strategic interest toward a more universal concern for global security. As an example: we all share the responsibility to develop local talent that can meet the needs of the global water and energy crisis for which we, as a global society, need to address: 40 percent more water and 40 percent more energy by 2030. 13 Our current infrastructure is incapable of handling this increase in energy demand; or is finding or creating 40 percent new water feasible. This deadlock necessitates a new paradigm for managing resources and sets the stakes high on innovative solutions to sustain global economy and growth. There is a global awareness that business as usual is not a sustainable approach. There is also increasing global awareness of the inter-linkages between energy security and water and food security, as one means for achieving integrated and holistic resources management. The private sector must be aligned with this evolution of the public and industrial sector. To an extent, the recent industrial trend in responsible investment and social responsibility has been on the rise: offering tremendous opportunities to build local capacities and develop the responsible innovators of the future. Qatar has not yet harnessed this opportunity to its fullest potential. Only the national companies of oil and gas have this as an aim, but their interest has been limited in scope. Integrating the multinational capacity while nurturing and building local talents that meets the national priorities should be better achieved The Qatar R&D community realizes that the complexity of the challenges and the limited size and scope of their research enterprise, makes regional cooperation alliances a complement to their expertise and goals. The GCC network on renewable energy has partnered with the EU to form the GCC Clean Energy Network which aims to respond to the common interests of its GCC and EU stakeholders in the field of clean energy. The Network is a practical instrument for the development of concrete cooperation activities on clean energy, including the related policy and technology aspects, among various players across the EU and GCC countries. 14 The Network is also an excellent example of the development of a culture of science, knowledge and innovation for the benefit of local Qatari society, but also, synergistically, for the benefit of the collaborative partners. More such networks are needed to ensure the continued well-being of the State and its partners. Creating a culture of innovation as outlined above is everybody's responsibility and includes home, school, research enterprise, university, the private and the public sectors. All of these efforts must be integrated through all sectors and levels of society and among all ages from primary schools through a lifelong learning process. Civil society has huge responsibility in this matter. Public engagement strategies must be facilitated among all stakeholders. We must acknowledge the role of public media and its responsibility in information dissemination and raising awareness of roles and responsibility of each sector of society about the innovation value chain and its importance to the society and the economy. The author wishes to thank the contributions of the Texas Nexus Team namely: Mary Schweitzer, and Hamid Shafiezadeh for their insightful contributions to this chapter.