By: David Dickson and Bothina Osama

Published in SciDev.Net on 27 January 2012

One year after Egypt’s revolution, enthusiasm and prospects for science are high — but still need translation into a fully functioning system.

It is difficult to believe, given the optimism and vitality of current debates about science in Egypt, that less than two years ago a UNESCO report described science in the Arab world as being in a “vegetative state”. [1]

This week Egypt celebrates the first anniversary of the momentous events in Tahrir Square, and elsewhere, that brought down the autocratic regime of President Hosni Mubarak. These events showed both the promises and the challenges in achieving economic prosperity and social development.

The promises lie in the fervour for democratic control that continues to sweep the country, combined with growing public enthusiasm for science. They point to a widely-held desire to modernise Egypt’s social and economic institutions in ways that directly address the needs of its people.

But turning fervour into an achievable political programme — one that ensures the achievements of last year’s revolution are permanent — remains a major challenge. This is as true for the institutional reforms needed to genuinely transform the country’s science infrastructure, as it is of the broader changes demanded of the newly-elected Egyptian Parliament.

Attendance at public events, such as lectures run by organisations such as the Science Age Society [2], has been high. And part of the discussion has been around how individuals can support scientific development, for example by becoming scientists and engineers. Frustration at a lack of employment opportunities for even qualified graduates was a major factor behind the revolution itself.

The media reflects this increased recognition for scientific research. Many newspapers, both new and old, now devote a special section to science — something that few would have considered before the revolution.

Government support for scientific research and the technological innovation sector has been impressive over the past year. An increase of about 35 per cent for the research budget has already been approved. And promises of further investment look set to end the chronic underfunding of science in Egypt.

Scientists and academics are now enjoying higher salaries and much more freedom than they had previously. They are more optimistic about the prospects of developing a system of scientific research that will meet both their, and the country’s, needs.

Progress in scientific and socioeconomic development will depend on individuals being recognised for their talents and contribution, rather than their political or family connections. As Princess Sumaya bint El Hassan of Jordan, one of the most articulate commentators on the challenges facing Arab science, notes in an interview with SciDev.Net, meritocracy is essential since it allows good ideas to prevail regardless of their origin.

Achieving such a transformation in the country’s scientific culture is one of the major challenges that lie ahead.

A research strategy must be agreed to ensure the promised budget increases are used appropriately. One year after the revolution, and despite all the upbeat talk, such a strategy has yet to be announced.

And new ways of supporting scientific research, such as by creating a Supreme Council of Research Centres, are still in the early stages, and will need a lot of time, effort and commitment.

Despite the improved climate for research, 400 researchers still left Egypt’s National Research Centre in 2011 to work in countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia — talent that Egypt can ill afford to lose.

And innovation in the private sector remains low, reflecting continued uncertainty over where the country’s economy is heading. There is, therefore, no cause for complacency.

One year after the revolution, the optimistic and supportive spirit that surrounds science in Egypt still needs to be translated into the concrete activities required for real development. A law on science and technology, due to be considered by the Egyptian Parliament later this year, is one tangible action that could set the country on the right path.

It would be a tragedy if this opportunity is missed, and the country’s science reverts to previous habits of relative inertia and low productivity.

David Dickson
Editor, SciDev.Net

Syndicated from: Muslim-Science.Com

Published on SciDev.Net on 18 January 2012

[CAIRO] Scientists have been reflecting on the astonishing gains that the Egyptian revolution has delivered them, as the first anniversary of Egypt’s Tahrir Square uprising approaches next week (25 January).

Over the past year, the science budget has increased by more than a third, salaries have risen and plans have been made for a science and technology city.

“Change has begun on both financial and administrative levels,” Maged El-Sherbiny, president of the Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (the government body responsible for funding research in Egypt), told SciDev.Net.

All the research centres affiliated to different ministries will be gathered under the Supreme Council of Research Centers, and the scientific research budget, which jumped 35 per cent in 2011−12, is likely to increase in 2012−13, said El-Sherbiny, with a government target of one per cent of gross domestic product to be spent on science.

The sharp increase in funding stems from a widespread perception that investment in science is crucial for the future of Egypt.

Ashraf Shaalan, president of the National Research Centre (NRC) ―the largest research centre in Egypt ― said that this surge of national fervour for science, as well as increased funding, had motivated Egypt’s scientists.

For example, it has sparked interest in getting research published in international journals, he said. Output rose by a quarter to about 2,000 in 2011, he claimed.

The NRC won about US$13 million from the National Science and Technology Fund in 2011 to fund 80 research projects, he said. But, despite salary rises, the centre lost 400 researchers in the brain drain last year, especially to Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

The private sector has not fared so well post-revolution. The Nile University, the first private non-profit research university in Egypt, came under threat because of links to the former fallen regime. The university had moved into new accommodation just before the revolution and was then told by the new government to move out because they were on government land.

“Such stumbles are expected after revolutions,” said Tarek Khalil, president of the Nile University.

“We started the year after the revolution not knowing if we would continue but, by the end of the year, the minister of scientific research had assured us that we will be continuing our efforts in our university.”

Nile University will now be part of the new Zewail City of Science and Technology.

Abol-Enein said there were plans to harness the new public enthusiasm by establishing a fund to finance research projects, to which the public can donate.

But other leading scientists have expressed caution about how enduring Egypt’s scientific changes might be.

Alaa Idris, chairman of the scientific research committee of the science-supporting foundation Misr El-Kheir, said: “Egyptians are still more concerned with issues such as increasing wages [and dealing with] street children and slum areas”.

Idris said that, for real change to occur, the new Egyptian constitution should acknowledge the importance of scientific research and a law on science and technology should be passed next year.

Syndicated from: Muslim-Science.Com

By: Athar Osama

Published on SciDev.Net on 12 January 2012

 

Some Muslim countries’ powerful financial incentives to make quick progress in research could backfire, cautions Athar Osama.

Over a decade ago, several governments in the Islamic world woke up from decades of slumber to begin investing heavily in science and innovation. A funding boost helped set up new universities, enhance research grants, and send thousands of students to do PhDs in the developed world.

The regulators and ministries that rolled out these ambitious efforts cautioned against judging their effectiveness and viability too soon, pointing to the limited scientific capacity in these countries. It was popular to say, ‘let’s build a critical mass (quantity) first and worry about raising the standard (quality) later’.

But there was clearly something amiss: some policies seemed either deficient or simply wrong-minded. And evidence of this is beginning to pile up.

Evidence of misguided priorities

The picture emerging is one of a mindless race to secure international publications and increase university rankings using ‘shopping sprees’ for highly cited academics, plagiarism and even outright academic fraud.

A recent article published in Science highlights a practice, prevalent in at least a couple of Saudi Universities, of engaging prolific academics on so-called part-time contracts that pay handsomely in exchange for spending a couple of weeks on campus — and, critically, on condition that the university name is added to their ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) index profiles. The index is one of the factors included in world university rankings.

This results in an artificially higher number of papers published by that university, and hence a higher ranking.

The article notes that this practice is similar to UK universities ‘shopping’ for prolific scientists just before research quality assessments, in order to ensure a higher evaluation and funding for future research.

But there is a fundamental difference: while one may question the timing of UK universities hiring a prolific scientist, it is not a fraudulent practice in and of itself. But claiming credit for a scientist who does not engage in meaningful research with researchers at the university in question, or using work unaffiliated with the university to bump up rankings, is certainly suspect.

Plagiarism and academic fraud

Seemingly sensible policies — such as encouraging academics to publish more — can also backfire if they are badly designed or implemented.

In Pakistan, a strong emphasis by the country’s Higher Education Commission (HEC) on a “publish and get paid” policy has created a culture of plagiarism and academic fraud, according to preliminary evidence that appeared recently in the Pakistani press.

Writing in a reputed English language national daily, Isa Daudpota, a senior administrator at Air University in Islamabad, alleges to have collected evidence of a fraudulent publishing racket that involves “international” and “peer-reviewed” journals, most of which are electronic. [2]

Although many are based in Africa, among other places, in reality they were created and run by Pakistani academics and their ‘friends’ abroad, says Daudpota.

These fraudulent journals may contain suspect or even fictitious names on their editorial boards, or may use names without permission. And participating academics can publish or even review their own work by nominating a non-existent professor as a reviewer.

Analysing the CVs of HEC-approved professors, Daudpota finds preliminary evidence that some professors (mainly having done their PhDs at local universities with relatively lax standards) are more likely to publish in such journals. But so far, the HEC appears to be treating these revelations as isolated cases rather than a systemic problem.

Financial incentives also lead to more publications in the industrialised world. But research by Franzoni and colleagues suggests they encourage submissions regardless of quality, while career incentives improve the quality of scientific papers. [6]

In the developing world, where the norms of quality and integrity have yet to take root, policymakers have a responsibility to enforce scientific integrity and ethics.

First, instances of misguided use of financial incentives, plagiarism, and academic fraud must be tackled with zero tolerance and exemplary punishments to individuals and institutions. This would set a precedent and send a message that it does not pay to cheat.

And rather than being treated as isolated instances, such cases should be probed for systemic problems that may tarnish a country’s academic reputation in the long term.

Second, future policies aimed at promoting scientific research must consider unintended consequences. Quality must come first, even if quantity and speed of reforms are compromised, and intrinsic motivators such as the satisfaction of creating new knowledge must be preferred over financial rewards.

Many aspiring governments in the Muslim world are eager to invest in science, and naturally, expect to reap rewards. But they must realise that there is no shortcut to joining the world’s scientific elite.

There are many things money can buy overnight, but the ability to carry out quality scientific research is not one of them.

Athar Osama is a London-based science and innovation policy consultant. He is the founder and CEO of Technomics International Ltd, a UK-based international technology policy consulting firm, and founder of Muslim-Science.com.

Syndicated from: Muslim-Science.Com

By: Mićo Tatalović

Published on 25 January 2012

It has been a year since the start of Egypt’s revolution 

Flickr/rouelshimi

Oil-rich countries could help the whole Arab region develop 

Flickr/potomo

Syndicated from: Muslim-Science.Com

By: Athar Osama

Published on SciDev.Net on 15 December 2011

 

Arab Spring revolutionaries turning to governance must adopt knowledge and innovation as barometers for progress, says Athar Osama.

As revolutions swept countries and shook governments across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region this year, they created opportunities for greater public voice in governance. Tunisia, for example, recently went through an election, and the Egyptian people are in the process of electing an assembly whose job is to write a new constitution.

And as revolutionaries turn to governance, they will have to address the socioeconomic and cultural challenges facing tens of millions of people: poverty with no prospect of prosperity, a burgeoning young population, poor employment opportunities, a culture of entitlement, and growing radicalism. These will be the real test of their leadership.

Science and innovation must feature high on their agendas. There are promising signs, such as Tunisia’s $16.5 million science and technology boost, and the pronouncements of Egypt’s caretaker government that it will open Zewail City of Science and Technology, a new science city named after Egyptian Nobel Laureate Ahmed Zewail.

But the capability of the revolutionaries and their countries is questionable in one key area. Can they nurture the science needed to create entrepreneurial opportunities and jobs?

Deploying science and innovation to bring prosperity will require deep and long-lasting changes in the way society views science and conducts everyday business.

Looking back

MENA countries are sailing through troubled and uncharted waters, and a peek at other countries’ histories could bring some useful insight. The recent experience of post-war Iraq is one example. There, a revolution led from outside has sapped the resources needed to invest in science and innovation.

And there is the not-so-recent experience of neighbouring Iran, where a political revolution created an Islamic republic that allows science to flourish — as evidenced by a 2011 report, produced by the UK’s Royal Society, that found Iran had the world’s fastest-growing number of papers published in international journals.

Pakistan’s history could provide the best model. Between 1989 and 1999, the longest period of civilian rule in Pakistan’s history, research and development funding as a percentage of GDP declined from 0.27 to 0.11 per cent. It then increased from 0.11 per cent in 1999 to 0.59 per cent in 2007 under the military rule of General Pervez Musharraf.

While a complex set of factors may have led to these results, it is clear that science and technology flourished more under stable military rule than volatile and populist civilian governments.

The revolutionaries in the MENA region must learn from this. Rather than depend on the benevolence of a dictator to fund science, they must create mechanisms to build grassroots support and secure political buy-in for the policies, institutions and governance that will generate science-based solutions for social problems.

A scientific revolution

Ultimately, a scientific revolution of sorts will be needed to redeem the promise of prosperity through science and knowledge. This can co-exist with religion, but it must embrace certain crucial elements of a society that values scientific knowledge and learning.

Writing in the journal Science, editor-in-chief Bruce Alberts, who is also one of Barack Obama’s science envoys to the Islamic World, identified a strong culture of meritocracy as one such element.

As Alberts points out, at the very heart of the dysfunction in Muslim societies is a lack of accountability, undue deference to age or social standing, and using one’spersonal connections as professional currency.

To bring about a scientific revival, the Muslim world must start by developing a culture that permits — and in fact encourages — critical inquiry, free thinking and questioning of authority. It must create the conditions for evidence-based and open debate — not blind subservience to religious, political or scientific orthodoxy.

The newly ‘liberated’ societies of the MENA region cannot hope to benefit from knowledge, science and innovation unless their barometers of progress are not who you are and who you know, but rather how much you know and how innovative you are.

However, there are potential pitfalls, such as high-powered incentives — payment for publishing papers, for example. A carefully crafted policy must also seek to balance this kind of stimulus by appealing to the intrinsic reward of producing quality science.

Another step in the right direction would be more emphasis on creating institutions. For too long, a preference for personality cults over institution-building has stifled meritocracy and open discourse in Muslim societies. The MENA revolutionaries could do much good by making a deliberate attempt to seed institutions with appropriate safeguards that nurture these attributes.

Creating such a scientific society will require a much deeper sociocultural and political revolution than anything we have seen so far — perhaps a different kind of Arab Spring that will lead to the flowering of knowledge and innovation. The work, however, must begin today, with small steps in the right direction.

Athar Osama is a London-based science and innovation policy consultant. He is the founder and CEO of Technomics International Ltd, a UK-based international technology policy consulting firm, and founder of Muslim-Science.com.

Syndicated from: Muslim-Science.Com

Syndicated from: Muslim-Science.Com