USAID and Higher Council for Science and Technology partner

Jordan currently faces significant challenges in terms of cooperation and relationships between the two communities by way of a large gap in identifying research and development (R&D) requirements and competencies, and matching them with industry demands and needs.

Both communities, however, face hurdles within their own structure and functionality; for example industrial sectors often do not invest in R&D since its value for long term sustainability and competitiveness is not understood, and often cannot articulate various research ideas and simply are not aware of the support the research community can offer.

The research community faces its own challenges by not investing efforts in marketing capabilities, advantages and services.

A study recently conducted, and discussed in today's roundtable, by the USAID Jordan Economic Development Program (SABEQ), demonstrates the gaps between the R&D community and the Packaging and Light Manufacturing sectors. The perceptions of R&D from the surveyed sectors were not positive and were so due to the following reasons: lack of awareness of the importance and influence R&D might have on the industrial processes, lack of awareness of local capabilities and competencies, insufficient funding from within the industrial firms or from other sources, the absence of coordination among same sector and sub-sectors to benefit from support given by R&D, the lack of long term vision of local industries regarding technological and market trends, the absence of track records of in-house or contracted research and the lack of known success stories which could provide incentive or inspiration for others.

The study also illustrates the obstacles faced by the R&D community including extreme workloads on university professors leaving little time for practicing R&D, the absence of graduate programs; especially Ph.D., in applied and basic sciences in universities, diversion of personnel of research institutions towards non R&D related activities, shortage of facilities in the higher education centers, lack of adequate funding and clear focus on competencies and areas of strength.
However, the potential for R&D activities in Jordan does exist, demands for R&D solutions are primarily in the areas of productivity enhancement and quality improvement. These are closely followed by: cost reduction and process optimization. Unfortunately these priority requirements from the industries are not matched by the priority order of academia.

Though several initiatives to enhance cooperation between academia and private sectors have been adopted by the government, the relationship between the two communities still requires considerable work. Several reasons exist for the weak relationship, they include the unavailability of R&D requirements of the different industrial sectors, the focus on solving technical problems facing an industry rather than developing new and innovative solutions, and the obscurity of national R&D competencies (Human Resources and R&D facilities) which would be able to match the needs of both communities for potential R&D cooperation.

The Higher Council for Science and Technology, being the national umbrella for science and technology in Jordan intends to develop real partnership with the private sector, and to embark on joint initiatives and projects between the universities and research centers on the one hand, and the private sector on the other. Such approach will be addressing national priority concerns such as energy and water sustainability, as well as health, food security and development of a technology-based economy.

The USAID Jordan Economic Development Program (SABEQ) is a five year broad economic development initiative implemented by BearingPoint, Inc. and a sizeable team of international and Jordanian partner firms. By both supporting improvements in the business environment and providing assistance to expand innovation and productivity in Jordanian businesses, it supports the main objective of building up the private sector as a powerful engine of economic growth.