RMK12: Address shortfall in science, technology and innovation talents

As science, technology and innovation (STI) assumes the prominent role of driving the world economy, the talent in STI becomes critical. We can have all the policies and blueprints, together with the state of the art support laboratory infrastructure, but without the appropriate talent, nothing much can happen. Talents include those in R&D, product development, design, research commercialisation, techno-entrepreneurship, science teaching, training, science communication and STI policy making, just to name some. As the nation embraces digitalisation, including the IR4.0 tehnologies and biotechnology, we also need talents in cybersecurity and biosecurity. The new economy has a lot to do with data science. The design of the algorithms in data analytics and artificial intelligence also call for another important branch of STI talents. The truth is, as we move to adopt the new STI driven economy, we must pay serious attention to build the nation’s capacity for the right STI talents. We cannot afford to be short. There are ways to secure enough STI talent for the country. In the short term we can tap on the international talent that is already present in the country. These include the lecturers and researchers from overseas who are already serving in the country’s universities, both public and private. We must ask ourselves whether we are doing enough to tap on their expertise? I am aware there are many such talents coming from India, Iran, Myanmar, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Indonesia and many more, teaching and doing research here, especially in the private higher education institutions. Unfortunately, from the feedback we get is that, they are not fully tapped for our immediate needs in STI. If we truly want to benefit from their presence, we must not treat them differently from our local talent, in the approval of research grants. Instead, we should encourage them to collaborate with the local talent. This idea is not new. It is done in China, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and Japan. We must also attract more local to take up STI as a profession. It is disconcerting that we are still not attracting enough students to pursue science careers. The magic 60/40 target continue to elude us. We must rethink the reward system for STI talents. We need to put in place a superior service arrangement befitting a career which the nation desperately needs to drive the innovation economy. Science teachers should be selected from the best talent in schools and offered an attractive career scheme. Good science teachers is important to raise the standard of STI in the education system. Many countries adopt such system in order to get the best talents to join the teaching profession. In fact, for that matter, teachers deserve to have the best service package in terms of remuneration and career advancement. We also the STI talents who are able to link well with industry. They need coaching on the right communication skills. It is unfortunate that scientists mostly lack the proper technical communication skills, which are needed to effectively link scientists with the others in business, government and the public at large. There is too much on writing only for the science journals which the other groups never read. We need the talent among scientists who can reach out to society. RMK 12 must invest in the initiatives to reduce the shortfall in STI talents. Higher education institutions, both public and private, must be invigorated to deliver. This article is written by Professor Dato Dr Ahmad Ibrahim Tan Sri Omar Centre for STI Policy UCSI University