Opportunities and Challenges for Innovations in Q atar

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. 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