Quote : NTU provost tells research community to change mindset
HOW is it that Singapore - fifth in terms of global competitiveness and with one of the most business-friendly environments - still lacks an innovation-driven mentality?
It’s because Singapore is more prone to “uncertainty avoidance and collectivism”.
This is the view of the Provost of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Professor Bertil Andersson, who spoke about the role that research universities should play in a world driven by innovation and creativity at a bi-annual prestigious forum in Switzerland held recently.
“There is clearly a less innovation driven mentality within the Singaporean research community and this needs to be rectified,” said Prof Andersson.
Research-wise, Singapore is “now playing in the top league” and the achievements are impressive. With some world leading researchers and some top research institutions, Singapore has been able to “leapfrog into the top echelon of world research”, he said at the 7th Glion Colloquium which ended yesterday.
Top level and technologically based multi national companies are also in Singapore because of its excellent research base and the wealth of young talent available to them.
But “uncertainty avoidance and collectivism” have been the impediments to the innovation process - compared with other similar population-sized countries such as Denmark, Ireland and Israel. Singapore also falls behind in comparisons of the activity in terms of patenting within the academic sector.
Locally, the public sector is also weaker than it should be, in comparison with the private sector.
One telling statistic, said Prof Andersson, is that the research performers in Singapore from NTU, the National University of Singapore and A*Star “collectively only created as many start-ups as the top well known US institutions such as Harvard or Stanford”.
The comparison can also be extended to include the Canadian universities such as British Columbia or Toronto.
This situation “needs to be rectified”, he said.
But while “risk avoidance” is a cultural issue, there is also an “apparent conflict” between patenting and academic publishing.
“This does not exist in reality but faculty members see this as a strong reason not to pursue the innovation track,” said Prof Andersson.
“Then there is the collectivism issue, in which the group is seen as more important than the individual. This should not be a reason for not going into innovation.”
“In many countries, patents and IP (intellectual property) rights are shared and, in fact, with collaborative and inter-disciplinary research becoming more of the norm, one sees far more patents coming from groups.
“However, in Singapore, this may be seen as a deterrent.”
My Quote : If you are Kiasi and Kiasu mentality, unitl you die also cannot innovate.
HOW is it that Singapore - fifth in terms of global competitiveness and with one of the most business-friendly environments - still lacks an innovation-driven mentality?
It’s because Singapore is more prone to “uncertainty avoidance and collectivism”.
This is the view of the Provost of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Professor Bertil Andersson, who spoke about the role that research universities should play in a world driven by innovation and creativity at a bi-annual prestigious forum in Switzerland held recently.
“There is clearly a less innovation driven mentality within the Singaporean research community and this needs to be rectified,” said Prof Andersson.
Research-wise, Singapore is “now playing in the top league” and the achievements are impressive. With some world leading researchers and some top research institutions, Singapore has been able to “leapfrog into the top echelon of world research”, he said at the 7th Glion Colloquium which ended yesterday.
Top level and technologically based multi national companies are also in Singapore because of its excellent research base and the wealth of young talent available to them.
But “uncertainty avoidance and collectivism” have been the impediments to the innovation process - compared with other similar population-sized countries such as Denmark, Ireland and Israel. Singapore also falls behind in comparisons of the activity in terms of patenting within the academic sector.
Locally, the public sector is also weaker than it should be, in comparison with the private sector.
One telling statistic, said Prof Andersson, is that the research performers in Singapore from NTU, the National University of Singapore and A*Star “collectively only created as many start-ups as the top well known US institutions such as Harvard or Stanford”.
The comparison can also be extended to include the Canadian universities such as British Columbia or Toronto.
This situation “needs to be rectified”, he said.
But while “risk avoidance” is a cultural issue, there is also an “apparent conflict” between patenting and academic publishing.
“This does not exist in reality but faculty members see this as a strong reason not to pursue the innovation track,” said Prof Andersson.
“Then there is the collectivism issue, in which the group is seen as more important than the individual. This should not be a reason for not going into innovation.”
“In many countries, patents and IP (intellectual property) rights are shared and, in fact, with collaborative and inter-disciplinary research becoming more of the norm, one sees far more patents coming from groups.
“However, in Singapore, this may be seen as a deterrent.”
My Quote : If you are Kiasi and Kiasu mentality, unitl you die also cannot innovate.
