Sunday July 24, 2011
When grants bring success
By RICHARD LIMeducate@thestar.com.my
THE Government’s move to prioritise research is paying off as Malaysia has enjoyed the highest growth rates in research publications, globally.
Malaysia recorded a 28.42% increase in research publications from 2006 to 2010, more than double that of second-placed China (12.1%).
This also places Malaysia above nations with strong traditions of research activity like Brazil (10.49%), India (8.24%), Taiwan (6.86%) and South Korea (5.86%).
The statistics were obtained from Elsevier, a publisher of medical and scientific literature which owns the bibliographic database SciVerse Scopus.
Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said that Malaysia’s exponential improvement reflected the ministry’s efforts to spur research activities over the past few years.
“The establishment of research universities, the creation of Higher Institution Centres of Excellence and the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) under the Ninth Malaysia Plan all contribute to this,” he said in a press conference after launching four new research grants at the ministry, yesterday.
“According to Elsevier’s estimations, Malaysia will overtake Singapore this year in publications if the trend of excellence continues.”
Ministry-supplied statistics showed that with its marked improvement, Malaysia was set to become the country with the best research output in terms of publications in South East Asia.
Senior sources in the ministry confirmed that Malaysia had already surpassed Thailand in annual research publications in 2008 and the levels of research output had been maintained so far.
At the event themed Work for Malaysia, Mohamed Khaled disbursed RM178.4mil to fund 1,022 research projects from public and private universities, research institutes and polytechnics.
Projects from private providers constituted 115 of the total and Mohamed Khaled said that this was encouraging sign of a maturing higher education landscape where private providers contributed to R&D activities.
The minister said that the amount disbursed was part of the RM741mil allocation package for research and development (R&D) activities under the 10th Malaysia Plan.
“This amount is a 260% increase of what was allocated in the Ninth Malaysia Plan and it shows that the Government is committed to develop R&D in Malaysia,” he said.
Mohamed Khaled also launched the Exploratory Research Grant Scheme, the Long Term Research Grant Scheme, the Prototype Development Research Grant Scheme and the Research incentive Fund to complement the existing FRGS.
It is hoped that the LRGS will inculcate a new culture in research activities at local universities as it incorporates a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional approach.
The five research universities, namely, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), Universiti Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) are spearheading the LRGS.
RM38mil has been allocated to fund seven niche research projects over five years and USM – Malaysia’s apex university – leads the pack with two niche fields in tropical medicine and energy and water security.
USM was granted RM6mil for each field and the varsity will now research pathogen interactions of tropical tuberculosis and come up with a cost effective and efficient flexible nano solar cell technology.
UM has been granted RM6mil to head a study investigating the mechanisms of severe dengue; UKM received RM4mil to investigate impact and responses for sustainability in the event of global warming; UPM received RM10mil to enhance sustainable rice production while UTM received RM6mil to research sustainable membrane-based manufacturing.
Another project on information and communications technology by UKM is still being evaluated.
Mohamed Khaled said that the ministry had stipulated that the LRGS projects had to involve as least three other universities to ensure collaboration amongst Malaysia’s leading researchers.
“Apart from researchers from three other varsities, the multi-institutional approach also fosters collaboration with other agencies,” he said in his speech.
“UPM’s niche in food security sees them working with the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) while USM is collaborating with Tenaga Nasional Berhad’s research arm for its niche in energy and water security.”
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