NST - 25 Feb '07 - SpotLight: Universities should ‘advertise’ new research
ONE reason why Malaysian companies are reluctant to try new inventions is the lack of continuous promotional efforts by universities.
The universities must "advertise" their research and development (R&D) results and that they are ready for commercialisation, said Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) past president Datuk Mustafa Mansur.
Universities, he said, were not active in carrying out continuous promotion to inform the Malaysian public, in particular the manufacturing sector, of their R&D findings. "While it is true that the manufacturing sector should also seek out technologies, the exposure of Malaysian entrepreneurs to new technologies are through publications, word-of-mouth and through their contacts with existing service providers for testing services."
Mustafa said in the early 1990s, FMM had carried out visits to universities to view R&D facilities and capabilities. He said FMM had also offered its newsletter to universities and research institutions to publicise findings which were ready for commercialisation.
"Unfortunately, there was no response except for Standard and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (Sirim), which had publicised one finding and quickly found industry collaboration. Since then, no other findings were sent to the FMM for publication to its members."
The R&D is carried out on laboratory scale and further research will be required. "Under such circumstances, it is costly for many Malaysian companies, in particular small and medium enterprises, to take up such projects because of lack of funds and resources to carry out further research, or to fund the public research institution to do it."
Aiyaa .. coming from a university, this is an old, old, old story .. and the funny thing is, we are still talking about it. This is not new .. WHY are we still talking about the same thing. We can talk about it 10 years down the road and it will still be the same. Are we to expect a different scanario if we harp on the same issues. Hey .. change something to get something new.
Straight up, universities want to see research commercialised? Do it yourself. Plain and simple. If you believe and trust in your finding, fund it, build it, sell it. That's it. No one else is interested. Start prioritising .. not enough money? but we have money to build car sheds, new pavements etc. Do a proper audit. Channel to a focus area. Must I tell everything? Aiyaaa .. tak tau lah ...
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You write very well.