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by Dr. R. M. W. Amaradasa

Continued from 24.07.2005

Both the researchers and academia feel that the lack of research orientation of the industries as the main barrier for the continuation of existing link among respective parties.

On the other hand, as stated earlier, the lack of rewards/incentives and the lack of information are considered as major barriers for initiating relationships.

This suggests that continuous efforts to bring the two groups into a common forum and the development of a reliable information system would help in overcoming the latter issue.

However, the incentive systems have to be worked out by institutional level or national level based on the performances to motivate continuation of existing relationships.

In addition, from the point of view of industrialists bureaucracy of research institutes/universities are regarded as the major barriers.

This leads to the relationships that the industry personnel have with universities and research institutions being dealt with at an informal and personal level.

By doing so, the universities and research institutions are losing in two directions. In one way, the possible income from consultancies through official channels will not be available for the institution.

In addition, if a proper system is established that will enhance the power (and the reputation) of the institution in terms of capabilities.

Also, the institution will be in a better position to attract many more assignments both nationally and internationally.

Framework conditions

In relation technological development using local S&T capabilities, industry is mostly concerned about the, lack of systems and mechanisms to support relationships, limitations in the communication facilities, and inadequate laboratory facilities and services in Government labs.

In addition, the industrialists consider market factors such as limited market due to the smallness of the country and the purchasing power of the customers, which is related to the economic condition of the country have connections to the relationships.

Micro level conditions

The micro level issues are multi-faceted, inter-connected and they show an accumulative and influence effect on one towards the other.

For example, the problem faced by the research institutions related to technology transfer to industry is connected to several issues. In one hand, the local industry very rarely use locally developed technology. For industry it is more reliable and time saving (sometimes it is cheaper also) for them to import technology. On the other hand, the technologies developed in research institutions are not adequately tested in the real life conditions.

In addition, even if they are adequately tested, the technology is not adequately marketed. These things lead to the fact that even though there is a potential, industries tend to neglect and by-pass the local research institutes for their technological needs.

The remedy to resolve this situation seems to be simple but difficult to arrange. A proper mix of technological requirements of the industry and the technical solutions from the research institutions is an ideal solution. One cannot simply say that such a mix will work.

As a matter of fact, it would not work without conscious orientation towards industrial requirements specially by the research institutions. An enhanced levels of orientation to industrial research together with R&D based relationships with industry has to be developed, jointly with industry.

At this point, the industry access to market needs will play as a beneficial source of information for researchers, specially to those who are reluctant to work on product development due to their perception on some characteristics of the local market such as low purchasing power and low quality concerns of local customers.

One of the other mechanisms for such orientation for mixing needs and requirements would be structured/motivated exchange of personnel between industry and institutes. RIS can be structured to absorb people with industry experience while industry can recruit researchers on a specific tasks.

I think it is important to mention at this point that some good productive relationship take place here and there even in the present context. The required attributes for such relationships such as maintenance of confidentiality, trust and adhering to time targets are understood by those who are involved in relationships. They have found their own ways to get closer to the partners.

This understanding is now widely spilled over to the rest of the potential partners also. Hence, the desire among the researchers to take a window of opportunity to utilise their capabilities can be seen considered as a "readiness" state of researchers to join relationships.

However, these readiness in the mindsets of researchers can be pulled back by other related systemic failures.

The limited authority to handle funds in a more flexible manner and inability to retain generated funds for development purposes are the important systemic failures.

By knowing the difficulties in having such relationships within the existing organisational boundaries, the researchers support creation of new forms of organisations with private sector outlook within the traditional institutional boundaries to overcome difficulties related to systemic failures. Hence, unless these systemic failures are removed, the negative perceptions of the researchers and industrialists towards each other will remain long.

Coupled with these systemic failures, there can be seen many functional failures within the institutional boundaries that need ratification.

Inter and intra communication and coordination, industry oriented approaches, effective internal management and leadership, and focus on available resources and capabilities are some of areas that contribute to better performance of the functions of the institutions. These functional failures to my knowledge, can easily be corrected through innovative approaches by institutions.

The other side of the story is that many potential industries show weak technological capabilities due to limited skills and facilities.

The remedy for such problems can have many alternatives. Collective approaches by industry clusters is one of the best approaches in terms of availability of resources for industries.

It was seen that for industries where the skills are available (it can be seen that in many cases the ownership possess high level of technical competencies and desire to try out new products and processes, the problem of limited facilities can be addressed in a more radical fashion.

One of the approaches is to allow those industrialists to work in state sector laboratories for specific purpose for a time frame for a fixed price.

I suggest this approach as from the point of view of technically talented industrialists, they need to feel the product/process development by themselves where a lot of tacit knowledge come into play during the development stages. (Technology Incubators are the ideal solutions for such entrepreneurship but unfortunately, in Sri Lanka such structures are still absent).

The need for extensive set of policy initiative imply that the government still has to play a major role in the industrial development in the country.

The Industrial Master Plan (Rainbow plan) provides similar evidence for linear model approach. For example, the Master Plan recommends compartmentalisation of research, development and design functions at universities, research institutes and industrial enterprises respectively, where very little interactions can be expected between academia and "enterprises".

Although the plan seems to have identified the deficiencies in the policy making and implementation instruments such as isolated policy dialogues by various affiliated policy making bodies in different ministries, weak interface among these affiliates and ministries, fragmented nature of policies, and duplication of functions in different ministries, the Plan itself seems to have ignored the existence of micro level deficiencies, to some extent.

The plan does not provide recommendations or instruments to bring universities and research institutes to act within the R&D circle for common benefit.

In summary, the study shows that relationship in Sri Lanka are based on lower end of the spectrum which are characterised by short-term orientation such as education and training and service based relationships.

The micro-level constraints and weaknesses are wide spread in all three types organisations in addition to the weaknesses related to the framework.

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