The way ahead: the Global Lab
By: Michael Kenward /
Tags: innovation, Research and Development
The much vaunted globalisation of business and politics has not by-passed the world of R&D.
The world of R&D is flattening out, becoming a globalised business, linking researchers and labs across the planet in collaborative projects.
Consider the following trends:
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Tech companies are expanding far beyond their traditional lab bases. Rolls-Royce, the UK aerospace company, has set up university technology centres in Singapore and has strong academic links with universities in China and other Asian nations, including Korea. According to EU Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik, EU-based companies, on average, are now spending just 73 percent of their R&D budgets at home - with 16 percent going to North America and 3.5 percent to China.
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The world's biggest private R&D funders are multinationals, with facilities spanning the globe. Topping the EU's annual industrial R&D scoreboard this year is Microsoft, followed closely by Pfizer.
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Academic researchers are also forming alliances in the developing economies. Most recently, the UK's Research Councils, the independent bodies that funnel government money into academic research, have set up an office in India. The idea is to “promote research collaboration between the UK and India”.
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The European Commission's latest policy pronouncement in R&D is on global research collaboration. In a September 2008 communication, the Commission asks whether member states can better coordinate their relations with other parts of the world, to strengthen European competitiveness in research.
The reasons for looking at developments in other countries are clear. Back in 2006, the OECD forecast that China would overtake the USA in spending on research. In China, the number of researchers rose by 77 percent between 1995 and 2004. Singapore employs more researchers per thousand total employed than the OECD average.
Commissioner Potocnik has fretted publicly that, at this rate, the importance of European labs could shrink to producing as little as 10 percent of all the new ideas in the world – a stark decline from current levels. (One measure today: EU researchers produce about 35 percent of all published scientific papers.)
Globalisation represents a challenge to anyone involved in managing research. In association with Microsoft and the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the Science|Business news service is throwing the spotlight on the issues surrounding the globalisation of research at ‘The Global Lab': a series of events that started with a policy symposium in Brussels on 12-13 November and a research seminar in Leuven on 17-18 November 2008.
The topics under discussion include:
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The extent and impact of globalised R&D.
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Best practice - a look at successful policies to harness the trend to national advantage.
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Strategy - how do companies, universities and research institutes take advantage of this trend, through open innovation, tech-transfer initiatives, and other new organisational strategies?
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New science - how does globalisation change the nature of science?
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New tools - what networking, organisational and IT tools work in global research projects?
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Policy workshop - a brainstorming session on which policies are most promising for the EU.