R&D: ensuring our future

Research and Development (R&D) is far from being just tests and experiments held in labs and in the field of science or medicine. It has become well understood that R&D is crucial to ensure a prosperous future in any industry or sector. This is because R&D and innovation play a vital role in providing scientific and technical solutions to meet challenges faced by our societies.

According to  Key Figures of Europe 2018 published by Eurostat, Malta lies fourth from last when it comes to spending on research and development. In fact, figures show that Malta spent 0.61% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in this field, way below EU average which is equivalent to 2.03% of GDP. Even remarkable is the fact that primarily this spend has been mostly made by business enterprise.

Whereas this data is quite disappointing, it is not the only gauge that shows the negative situation Malta is in when it comes to research. In the past weeks, I saw first-hand the challenges that come with R&D during my visits to various research centres including the labs at the University of Malta. The challenges faced by our scientists include primarily the lack of funding that is necessary to invest in new instruments for their research.

Furthermore, I have been approached by several students and academics about the lack of opportunities for PhD graduates to further their research. Over the past five years, 200 students obtained a PhD degree from the University of Malta. However, what are we doing to give these researchers the opportunity to carry out further research? Following the call for post-doc grants issued in 2015, no other similar calls have been issued save for a few specific opportunities. This is worrying because post-doc grants target high profile researchers and encourage research in strategic fields necessary for the country. The availability of such post-doc opportunities is thus of national interest.

These three indicators should set us thinking on how much we understand the importance of research and innovation for our society. The government might argue that the situation was not much different back in 2013. Yet Joseph Muscat had promised to make Malta the best in Europe. The government had over five years to make use of the thriving economy to boost funding of research and yet we have seen none of this. The government cannot keep on playing the blame game and should put money where we really need it and not in fake consultancies which have become the order of the day.

It is now high time that our government takes full responsibility to support and incentivise the private sector to invest in R&D to help them to guard the risks brought about by the investment needed to innovate and remain competitive and be in a position to meet market demands. As former Tourism Minister, one crucial economic driver that comes to mind is the tourism sector, an important pillar of our economy which involves several SMEs. The sector is thriving but faces challenges such as new tourism trends, over tourism and climate change. We need to carry out more research to update our product and overcome our challenges. Not all is negative, and I want to thank several companies and voluntary organisations that are continuously supporting research projects and research trusts such as RIDT.

Meanwhile, the importance of research has long been acknowledged by the European Parliament. Recently we voted to increase the European Union's budget for research. It is now up to the Maltese government to match this ambition by not only supporting the budget, but also by ensuring the uptake of such funds. This is vital for our country to remain competitive with other developed economies.

Investment in research is also crucial for cancer, a sector which I am closely following at the European Parliament. Few things hit you as hard as meeting a cancer patient. The inability to offer them any assurance about their future is very frustrating. However, politics is a tool to incentivise those who light hope in the hearts of cancer patients and their families through their work and this what I have been working on in the past couple of months. We have set an ambitious target to overcome cancer in 20 years' time. Yet we can only achieve such a goal if we invest more in research especially with regard to paediatric cancer which is rare and which thus calls for more cooperation between researchers at EU level.

Back to Malta, the future of our economy and our quality of life will depend on innovation and the skills of our people. In these circumstances, we have no option but to invest more in research and to give the opportunity to our researchers, including those in the various educational and research institutions such as MCAST and the University of Malta, to grow and expand.

This is a Malta Independent opinion piece