It's less about producing them, it's more about convincing them to stay. How many are open to a (large) pay cut vs. going abroad where "the grass is greener"...

It's more of a political decision by the country's government. When education and scientific research are prioritized and encouraged by offering promising individuals international study opportunities the number of researchers will increase. The next question will be whether these researchers are going to be given the chance to contribute to their communities.

Thank you very much, Mr. Mohammedali, for your response. I certainly appreciate your time.

Unfortunately government does not seem to possess the willpower to make the necessary efforts. What do you think might be the role of local academia in this endeavor? How might we entice promising young individuals to join research?

I agree with Mr. Mohammedali that this is a political choice. As per your question about the role of local academia in promoting the solution, its role would be limited at best. Unless of course, an environment advantageous to research and researchers is created (Without such an environment, the system would reproduce itself). That I doubt it would happen as fast as one wishes (it takes time).

It's less about producing them, it's more about convincing them to stay. How many are open to a (large) pay cut vs. going abroad where "the grass is greener"...

Dear Myles Joshua Toledo Tan from experience with the Global Innovation Index, what matters for any country is not the number of researchers, but the number of well established research per number of 'claimed' research institutions. This what makes the difference.

In IIEP we've been working so effective to be a role model for developing countries in the last 3 years and here are examples of projects & publication we did and which we believe are making a difference

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mohamed_Buheji/research

Regards

Mohamed

Using the train the trainer's approach may help in this way

Dear Myles, perhaps the triple helix conceptual model of innovation (and further work since) could be helpful for you in order to address the very relevant policy questions you are discussing (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2480085). Governments have a key role to play from a policy perspective towards more investments in human capital (particularly in STEM areas). But governments alone will not achieve the goals of a sound innovation system based on high levels of R&D towards a "knowledge economy" model of development. The interactions with the private sector and research centers (mainly from universities) is a key element to create a sound innovation policy and business climate. That is, an integrated public-private model. The problem in most low and middle income countries is the persistence of isolated plans or policies. Moreover, the limited public and private investments in R&D and the weak education systems create obstacles for innovation. This report from UNCTAD (2018) points out key policy issues. Best regards.

https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/tir2018_en.pdf

In economy they say SME’s

In research, individual researchers should help and start even without big R&D

Es tomar conciencia de la importancia de la investigación, si tiene haber una política de estado, pero también juega un rol importante la academia, las universidades para promover investigaciones y por tanto promover y capacitar a investigadores.

S.Korea Singapore are regional examples of political will and direction as a key driver and enabling factor.

another example is Cuba that after 1959 where new leadership Fidel Castro dreamed of becoming a medical power but with few resources. Cuba is today an exporter of quality vaccines and a leading centre of biotechnology .

Agree with the above. Incentivisation is key. Do you know how many researchers stay in the Philippines as a proportion of the number trained? Building stronger links with higher profile institutions and research hubs globally will help as will doing more to raise awareness of the good research being undertaken in the Philippines. Academia can help to create the best researchers but is limited in capacity to ensure job security and prosperity. The UK is doing some work in this area and another initiative has recently been launched - see here https://www.nihr.ac.uk/news/nihr-announces-new-funding-programme-to-strengthen-research-capacity-in-low-and-middle-income-countries/25878

The researchers' "production" will not contribute to a significant increase in the country's development. First, there must be industry and capital that will need science to develop further. Otherwise, the researchers will have to move to countries where their knowledge will be needed.

Therefore, in my opinion, we need to develop entrepreneurship first.

In Kenya, research is done by various institutions and other consultants. If we are to grow the number of researchers, it will require the government to give priority to universities when giving out consultancies on research. Also research consultancy firms to be engaging university lecturers and students.

I think the government should do something to encourage young people to become future researchers and scientists of our country. One way that they can do this is to provide scholarships to those aspiring scientists. Another is to allocate budget in research. Our government is not really giving research that much importance, this might be the reason why there are few researchers and scientists in the country. Overall, I can say that the support of the government is really needed to raise more researchers and scientists. This recommendation is not just for the Philippines but also for other countries that have a few number of researchers and scientists.

To raise more researchers and scientists, the country and people itself must support and value these professions just like how they support and value other professions. One of the major barriers in research in the Philippines is the government procurement process where a day of research for other countries would take 3 months for the Philippines. This alone is a discouragement for the researchers and scientists, thus, they would prefer to be in other countries. In addition to that, government agencies would want something that can be sold or marketed within two years. For instance, in drug development, it is a lengthy process, thus there is pressure among researchers and scientists when agencies want it shortened. Moreover, this field needs more funds especially when some research takes up years and years until they come into an outcome and offer more job opportunities for them. When these issues are addressed and solved, then there would be more researchers and scientists in the country, let alone qualified.

References:

Ilano, Ma. T. (2017, March 10) Philippine basic research needs more funding, say scientists. Retrieved from https://www.scidev.net/global/news/philippine-basic-research-needs-more-funding-say-scientists/

Liwag, J. (2020, October 21). Does the Philippines value scientific research? Retrieved from https://cnnphilippines.com/life/culture/2020/10/21/scientific-research-philippines-barriers.html?fbcid&fbclid=IwAR3ip78INtMatADt58tAY_EITVrS5Tv1p_-UjgYQ6araChSBcEFylR4r448

I think the government should prioritize the importance of researchers and scientists since they are the one who studies the trend of the economy and the behavior of the people that can lead to progress and developments. In our country itself, there is a lot of aspiring researchers out there but they don't get prioritize and on the worst scenario, they get paid less. As what George Stoica mentioned above, paying them large cut can convince them to stay in the industry.

The Philippine Government political action toward the aim to increase the number of researchers and scientists as the involvement of the government would enable the citizens through government policies to become scientists and researchers but that alone I think is not enough so incentives such as financially rewarding job opportunities needs to be improved in the Philippines in order to retain scientists and researchers to prevent brain drain.

Sources: https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1074747

Producing more scientists in a country with a little amount of researchers would be an arduous task to accomplish. First and foremost, one should look into the root cause of the problem and start from there. In the Philippines, the technological and scientific fields are not that supported by the government compared to the military department. With this, people of higher power should be urged to invest more on these neglected departments and empower them in order to gain more trust and confidence for the youth that are considering to partake in such fields. Not only that but the said small population of researchers should be invested upon in order to also advertise the importance of research work and eliminate the ignorance toward the greater effect of researches to the society.

Dear Profa. Myles Joshua Toledo Tan ,

I will be honest with you, I think that developing countries have many problems to be solved, and science ends up being put aside.

We all know about difficulties in obtaining financial resources to advance research and even to give researchers a dignified life.

I think that principal incentive for the formation of new researchers and new research should be what I call the World Scientific Council (WSC) (https://www.researchgate.net/post/World_Scientific_Council_WSC_to_finance_and_disseminate_scientific_research_worldwide_Is_it_a_utopia_or_is_it_the_reality_of_thehumanization).

As for the local initiative to help you in your country, I think should focus on research that can help your population at this moment. Perhaps with fundamental tripod, Education, Health and Housing. We know that it fortifies and germinates seed that we want to reach in science. Thus, for science to germinate as we wish, I believe that encouraging research in education, health and housing, may be the way.

I very much hope that you succeed in your endeavor, and that you can be resilient and effective in your actions.

Best Regards,

Prof. Wiltgen

Producing scientists in a developing country such as the Philippines is quite a challenge. In comparison to other countries, the Philippine technology is not yet that advance to create and support a small number of researchers. Aside from that, a country has its own fixed projects to fund. Thus, the rise of prioritization of projects. In order to create more scientist, the country have to allot funds for Research and Development as well as the technology to pursue their researches. In addition, the country can also produce more scientist if they allow their local researchers to learn and foster their knowledge by engaging them to research related projects with neighboring countries. Bringing them back to the country with experience and knowledge to share. In addition, providing scholarships to aspiring scientist can also be a good initiative to boost the passion of these young researchers. In summary, it takes funds for the country to produce more scientist as well as the effort to actually give importance to researcher.