Increasing need for collaboration between universities and industry
View(s):If research and knowledge creation is carried out on an ad hoc basis, universities cannot be called halls of knowledge and learning to produce graduates and postgraduates, said a top professor.
There is increasing global pressure for the universities to have stronger partnerships with the industry, to produce graduates targeted for industry needs, said Prof Ananda Jayawardene, Director General, National Science Foundation (NSF), the former Vice Chancellor, Moratuwa University and Senior Prof in Civil Engineering of the same University when he addressed the 2018 Uva Wellassa University (UWU) Convocation held recently. He spoke on ‘University – Industry Collaboration for value addition’.
In Japan, such collaborations are identified as Need-Seed, where industry needs are addressed by the university academics identified as Seeds. He asserted that in Sri Lanka too such collaborations are evolving, particularly by the University of Moratuwa (UOM) and UWU.
He commended the UWU for producing world recognized entrepreneurial graduates and postgraduates, while earning a reputation as an enterprising university.
He said that Sri Lanka is globally competitive as Sri Lanka’s electronic sensors are used by the world’s best car brands, apparels are worn by the world’s top athletes in Olympics, surgical gloves are used by the world’s top surgeons, tyres manufactured in Sri Lanka are used by the world’s best aircrafts and software and algorithms of Sri Lanka are used in the world’s leading stock exchanges and doing over one billion eBay transactions per day.
He said that the country’s value added high tech products over decades have been low and pointed out that according to World Bank statistics in 2016 in Sri Lanka it stands at one per cent of exports, India it is 7 per cent, Thailand 22 per cent, Malaysia 43 per cent and Singapore 49 per cent, even though plans and strategies are already set under the Cabinet-approved Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Sri Lanka in 2010.
He said that successive governments have failed to address the issues pointing out that according to the Sri Lanka Science, Technology and Innovation Statistics 2015, published by the National Science Foundation, the country’s research and development investment is 0.106 per cent of the GDP, the lowest in the region compared to 1.3 per cent in Malaysia, and 2.2 per cent in Singapore.
Patents
If patents are considered to be an indicator of knowledge creation, he said that in 2015 Sri Lanka obtained only 262 patents while Malaysia obtained 7700.
The effective factor for university–industry collaboration is the University Vision, incorporation of that vision in the Strategic Management Plan and the successive top management commitment for its realisation, as in the case of UOM vision is “to be the most globally recognised knowledge enterprise in South Asia.”
In this regard every academic department is supposed to meet the industry once every six months to discuss many aspects for mutual benefit which is called, Department Industry Consultative Boards (DICBs). He said that the Faculty Industry Consultative Boards (FICBs) are supposed to meet once a year to discuss and implement things applicable to the faculties.
He said that UOM has an external commercial arm – UNI Consultancy Services (UNIC). This is an entity registered under the Company Registrar as an Association Limited by Guarantee with voluntary membership limited to academic staff of the university. Accounts are audited by an independent audit firm.
He said that this mechanism is where the industry invests for research by providing funds to the university to establish research facilities, pay for staff and meet other expenses to carry out research and development which has immediate commercial potential. The university provides expertise, space and research students where relevant.
He said that the universities have strategic areas which need a real push and a champion to lead. Such champions are difficult to draw from academic staff specifically in new areas. This is where the industry support can be obtained to establish endowed positions with high remuneration to attract external champions for limited tenure.
There can be a range of mechanisms for university-industry partnerships only limited to one’s imagination as long as they meet the mutual interests of both the industry and the university, he said. He indicated that these can include such initiatives as industry and university together seek funding for strategic research and development facilities from other sources.
Prof. Jayawardene said that productive and fruitful university-industry collaboration takes place in a positive and conducive environment. Otherwise, spurts of individual initiatives will soon die due to frustration, constraints and lack of support from the system.
Conducive environment
He said that the creation of such a conducive environment is broadly referred to as the creation of an eco-system. Such an eco-system needs alignment of players, avoidance of bottlenecks, put in place facilitating incentives, lubricating available mechanisms and many others.
The most important way for effective university-industry collaboration is the facilitation of the eco-system, he indicated and said that this is where different players – individual universities, University Grants Commission, Ministry of Higher Education and other relevant ministries, the Treasury, Department of Management Services, National Procurement Agency and instruments such as national policies, institutional priorities can facilitate a common goal with appropriate incentives and compulsion.
These efforts should also be facilitated by institutions like the National Science Foundation, where he currently works in ensuring such interdisciplinary team work targeting specific outcomes leading to commercialisation and practical application, he indicated.
- (QP)