Research policy deserves attention

Universities in the UAE should benefit from both government and private enterprise funding.

Scientific research builds our future, a fact leaders around the world in government, academia and business understand very well.

But creating a rational policy to encourage these sectors to work together effectively can be a challenge. The new University Leadership Council (ULC) announced this week by five UAE universities promises to be a useful tool to help build sound policy.

There is certainly a lot to do. One widely-reported and telling number is that research spending in this country amounts to less than 0.1 per cent of gross domestic product, just 1/25th of the proportion spent in the US.

Announcing the new Council, leaders of the five founding universities made clear that the organisation will serve as a sort of lobby group, pressing for more funding. But true leadership in this field will require more than merely importuning governments, and the ULC has been planning to do much more.

In many countries, governments perform a small share of total research - notably of a military nature - in their own labs. In advanced countries, the lion's share of research is done in universities, which get government money to attract top scientists, build labs, and pay for equipment. Meanwhile corporations in some fields do their own research, and cooperate with universities on other projects.

A comprehensive policy needs to cover all these aspects of research, and to encourage efficient cooperation among the players. The schools involved in the ULC expect to do just that, beginning with a conference next month under the title Government, Industry and Academic Partnership to Promote Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi.

There is much to talk about. How can governments be enticed to provide more seed money to lure top researchers? How can universities develop home-grown research talent? How closely should universities cooperate with for-profit companies? Who owns a discovery made by an individual in a university lab under a grant from a private company? Who makes the ethical rules governing sponsored medical research?

The ULC opens the way to a comprehensive national approach to this whole important field, and that in turn promises important dividends in knowledge, stature and human well-being.