Arab Knowledge Report 2009: Towards Productive

BOX 5-6Jordan’s “A Professor in Every Factory”Production andservice sectors ofArab countriestypically rely onimported, readymadetechnology, onthe basis of turnkeyagreementsThis pioneering project aims to benefit from thewealth of knowledge among academics and tostrengthen the experience of researchers by solvingpractical problems in the industrial sector, creatingopportunities for the formulation of developmentprojects, and strengthening the competitive skillsof small and medium-sized industrial companies.The project selects industrial institutions and thenorganises visits to them by a university professoror researcher, after which a preliminary reportis produced on the technical and administrativeproblems faced by the institutions. The projectsecures the presence of a researcher in eachfactory throughout the academic summer vacationfor at least 10 hours each week. The SupremeSource: Jordan University of Science and Technology http://www.just.edu.jo/fff/intro.htmCouncil of Science and Technology covers 80 percent of the researchers’ costs, and the industrialinstitutions cover the other 20 per cent. The fieldscurrently covered include engineering, businessadministration, agriculture, science, and informationtechnology, though the project is open to any otherfields in which the production sectors may needassistance and will provide them with relevant localexperience. Among the most significant indicators ofthis project’s success is the continued participationof supporting agencies since its launch in 2003.Supporting agencies, convinced of the project’s rolein developing the academic and industrial sectors,have increased in number from four to eleven, whilethe value of support has increased tenfold.Foreign funding maylead to distancingresearchers and theirteams from researchthat is tied to nationalpolicies and prioritiesinvigorate the contributions of the privatesector, whose contributions to scientificresearch have in fact increased recently.However, this increase remains modest,and includes that spent on research anddevelopment within companies. Theprimary reason for this may be thatproduction and service sectors typicallyrely on imported, ready-made technology,on the basis of turn-key agreements.While the World Trade Organisation hasplaced tight restrictions on state support forproduction sectors, spending on researchand development is exempted from theserestrictions.As such, most advanced stateshave approved the allocation of largebudgets for research and development, andhave granted a clear priority to researchprojects that include effective partners inthe production and service sectors. Withinthis context, most industrial states considerspending by production and servicesectors on research and development tobe tax exempt, which creates an additionalincentive for companies to spend in thisfield and thus maintain their competitivestrength in international markets.The reliance of scientific researchcentres on internal resources requires thatthey make efforts–with no guarantee oftheir results–to market their scientific andtechnological services and to offer theirexperience in helping to solve problemsfaced by the industrial, agricultural, andservice sectors in return for financialcompensation. The few research centresaround the world that have been successfulin this approach have not been able tocover more than a small amount of theirannual expenditure. Thus researchers inArab countries strive to obtain foreignfunding for their projects and fail whentheir research falls outside the priorities ofinternational programmes. Typically thetargets set by such programmes are limitedto cooperation and the establishment ofresearch networks among states in theglobal North and South.There is growing interest among mostMediterranean Arab countries in benefitingfrom the significant support offeredby Europe as part of the programmeslaunched through the Barcelona Process.Morocco, Egypt, and Tunisia submittedthe largest number of research proposalsto the call of the European Union’s SixthFramework Programme for Research andTechnological Development (2002-2006)for proposals and received the highestnumber of acceptances. Yet European-Arab scientific partnership remains slowmovingin Palestine, Syria, Lebanon,Jordan, and Algeria (Figure 5-5).Bilateral international support is oftenoffered to fund research centres on thebasis of the political relations between194 ARAB KNOWLEDGE REPORT 2009