some results from estime · ird/savoirs et développement 3 estime results on research - 1 growing...

IRD/Savoirs et Développement 1

The state of Scientific Research in Arab countries: Some results from ESTIME

Rigas ArvanitisIRD, France


ESTIME Objectives

Description of the state-of-the-art in research in all scientific fields including social sciences.Design of indicators for policy makingParticipate in the debates on how to enhance research (evaluation, university, etc.)Promote “science studies” in Med countries


ESTIME results on research - 1

Growing production in science – as measured by publicationsSmall but dynamic research communitiesin most Arab countries, including thosewith low production figures (Syria, Palest.Terr.)Strong dynamism of Maghreb countries –higher than the world global figures


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Tunisia

Morocco

Algeria


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1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

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Thailand South Africa Egypt


Growth pattern compared to dynamic non- hegemonic countries (%annual growth rate)

0 0,5 1 1,5 2 2,5

M orocco

A lgeria

T un is ia

E gyp t

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Lebanon

S yria

C h ile

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S outh A frica



A marked specialisation in Engineering and applied physico-chemical sciences. Exception here : Tunisia and to some extent Lebanon

Examples: Chemistry = chemical engineering or characterization of industrial materials such as polymers and catalysts

Impact indexes are low (around 0.25) with the notable exception of Lebanon (0.40) –the later is probably due to an overrepresentation in international mainistream databases of bio-medical sciences located at the AUB.


A marked specialization pattern 1/3



Strong international cooperationPrefereed countries of cooperation

Maghreb with France (the largest scientificcontributor to co-authored articles in Arabcountries)Egypt and Syria not so keen on co-operations


Drivers of international cooperation

ESTIME has gathered more evidence…. Drivers of international cooperation are not the official policies, but rather the previous contacts, historical trends, and common cultural background.

Eg. Palestinian Engineers with Germany, Maghreb mathematicians with French, Clinical medicine in Egypt with USA.

But: New areas are appearing and they are the direct result of policy:

Biotechnology in Egypt; some areas in Jordan; most new areas in social sciences in Palestine T., Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Egypt.


Social sciences production: Maghreb – AbdulAzziz database – processed by IRD

1980_ 86

1987_ 92

1993_ 98

1999_ 2004

1980_ 2004

Morocco 1702 2234 3204 4663 7703Algeria 568 821 1200 1815 3005Tunisa 737 924 1308 1570 2850

Unique figures presented here. There has never beenany evaluation of the scientific effort in social science before93 389 publications (80-04) in an exhaustive databasecovering Maghreb countries


Research personnelCountry Personnel – Head

countEPT EPT/

106 hAlgeria 12000 ‘enseignants-

chercheurs’ (?) 1400 researchers,

5000 (?)

156

Jordan 42151 (of which 15 800 Sc. & Eng and 62% univ.)

1464 280

Lebanon 13 770professors (?) + 316 researchers f.t.

712 178

Morocco 14 616 professors 2900 researchers

8000 doctoral candidates

5000+ 8000

166(433)

Tunisia 25445 prof. of which 758F.T. and 9723 students 3rd cycle

14650 492(1465)



Varied institutional modelsStrong restructuring, the most succesful being TunisiaGrowing input figures –but low or bad use of public budgetsGrowing scientific population


Budgets for R&D as % of GDPPays 1998 2001 2004Algeria 0,16 0,27 0,21Egypt 0,20 0,19 -Jordan 0,38 0,34 (2003)

Lebanon 0,22 (2006)

Morocco 0,32 0,71 0,80Palestin.T. Half million for

science fund

Syria 0,2 (?)

Tunisia 0,43 0,53 1,00


A diversification of funding sources

Tunisia: relative diminishing public funds (but absolute growth), more international funds (EU) +R&D in entreprises.Morocco: Largest receiver of EU funds+more private sector (6% in 1998 12,3% en 2003). Probably true also in Egypt (no figures)

Lebanon: diversification of funds (int. cooperation, foundations, NGOs, entreprises); Syria & Lebanon : creation of research funds in the universities.


Low absorption capacity of national research systems

Important difference between promised budgets andimplemented funds ( eg. In all countries where data wasavailable)

Important differential between allocated funds and spentfunds (in som ecases can go up 60%)

Some institutions have a low ability to respond to international funds.


Three models of governanceSyriaEgyptIraq

Centralized type of governance, but decentralized performanceResearch in large public research centres and universitiesLarge public universities

LebanonJordan

Decentralized governanceResearch in pub+private universities

AlgeriaMoroccoTunisia

Centralized governanceLarge public universitiesResearch mainly in universities and public research institutes


Some additional results - 1

Strong re-structuring of the research activity (eg. Tunisia, Morocco)Active evolutions : Egypt, where efforts are done in that sense, but still to show resultsEvaluation of research (either teams, or programmes) is still not in the agenda !Social sciences are totally out of the radar... A dangerous trend: Soc.Sci. represent more than half of the students. No social science terrorism.


Some additional results - 2

Growing R&D activity in enterprises – Proven by the innovation surveys in Tunisia and Morocco, less evident to show for other countries because there is no innovation or R&D surveysBridging institutions are rare and have still a low activity /tech transfer units have low activity: legal issuesNew and inventive policies in innovation are too young to show any tangible result.


Some ideas for the future

Create a reference center for bibliometric data + effort on enhancing production visibility.

More on social sciences – Middle East and Gulf countriesMeasure of production in local journals in Arabic

Measure impacts of european programmesNeed for innovation and R&D surveysURGENT NEED for science policy analysts


Thank you !

www.estime.ird.fr

some results from estime · ird/savoirs et développement 3 estime results on research - 1 growing...

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