This category includes countries defined as: (1) S&T-proficient - with scientific and technological strength in several research areas and a growing S&T capacity in all aspects, including personnel, infrastructure, investment, institutions, and regulatory framework; and (2) S&T-developing - with scientific and technological strength in one or more research areas, but generally lacking important aspects of S&T capacity in personnel, infrastructure, investment, institutions, and regulatory framework.

1. Identify national science and technology goals and priorities

• The government of each S&T-proficient and S&T-developing country should develop a national S&T strategy that specifies priorities for research and development that address national needs in areas such as agriculture, health, industrial development, and the environment. This should involve high government officials at the federal level, including state and even municipal levels where appropriate, the national research councils, and technological and innovation agencies.
• Such strategies for science and technology should be developed by the national government in full consultation with the country's science, engineering, and medical academies, and other scientific organizations.
• National funding commitments for science and technology should rise to at least 1 percent - preferably 1.5 percent - of Gross Domestic Product, and should be disbursed using a merit-based approach.
• The option of national 'sectoral' funding for research and development - a portion of a nation's tax levies on for-profit corporations redirected into a special fund for financing the conduct of research in selected science and technology areas of economic interest to the nation - should be seriously considered by the public, private, and academic sectors of developing nations that aspire to significant S&T capacity. The management of each fund should be tripartite, with the participation of the academic community, government, and industry. A portion of each fund's resources should be used to support basic and applied sciences, and another portion should support infrastructural needs.

2. Assess strengths and weaknesses of current S&T capacity for achieving goals

• The effectiveness of national S&T institutions, including the following, should be reviewed:
  • Autonomous centers of excellence - research programs, within a university, a research institute, or operating independently, typically in one geographical location, and deemed by merit review to be of the highest international quality in personnel, infrastructure, and research output;
  • Strong universities - tertiary educational institutions for educating and training new generations of S&T talent, performing research and development in areas of societal need, and providing an independent source of information on topics of importance to the nation;
  • Virtual networks of excellence - research programs jointly sponsored and conducted by research institutes in different geographical locations, with research personnel communicating and collaborating primarily via new technologies such as the internet and the World Wide Web, deemed by merit review to be of the highest international quality in personnel, infrastructure, and research output;
  • Independent national or regional academies of sciences, engineering, and medicine - merit-based autonomous institutions, in which peers elect new members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing professional achievements, elect their own officials, perform programs of independent work, and inform the general public and national decisionmakers on science and technology aspects of public policies.
• Existing S&T institutions should be assessed through expert review and evaluation. Techniques for such procedures should include, as appropriate, peer review teams, relevance-review panels, or benchmarking studies. Given the relatively modest scientific capacity of most developing nations, their merit reviews should ideally include appropriate experts from other nations. Such involvement of the global research community, possibly through a program of international cooperation among academies of science, engineering, and medicine, can make the merit review processes in developing nations more effective not just for particular programs but in general.

3. Establish a government-university-industry partnership for strengthening S&T capacity

• Governments, industries, universities, and research institutes should experiment with partnerships and consortia for addressing research areas of potential local benefit.
• Government in particular - both national and local - must play a central role in creating public-private research partnerships. National and local governments should ensure that individuals and organizations continue to have strong incentives and opportunities to capitalize on research. To this end, one of the new ideas to be considered is the implementation of a group of 'sectoral' funds involving the primary economic activities in each country, as described in Section 6.1 and Box 37.

4. Create centers of excellence that address research issues of national need

• Centers of excellence - research programs, within a university, a research institute, or operating independently, typically located in one geographical location, and deemed by merit review to be of the highest international quality in personnel, infrastructure, and research output - should be created, or seriously planned for the near future, in practically every S&T-proficient country. Such centers can serve as the main nodes for individuals or groups charged with enhancing S&T knowledge of national and even regional importance.
• These centers of excellence should have institutional autonomy, sustainable financial support, knowledgeable and capable leadership, international input, focused research agendas that include interdisciplinary themes, applied research as well as basic research, technology transfer, peer review as a systemic element, merit-based hiring and promotion policies, and mechanisms for nurturing new generations of S&T talent. New scientific and technological research projects should be decided on the basis of input from expert review, with each project and program evaluated for both technical merit and its potential benefits to society.
• International funding sources for such centers of excellence - including international development banks, donor governments, philanthropic foundations, and for-profit corporations - should be identified and sought.
• Virtual networks of excellence (VNE) - research programs jointly sponsored and conducted by research institutes in different geographical locations, with research personnel communicating and collaborating primarily via new technologies such as the internet and the World Wide Web, deemed by merit review to be of the highest international quality in personnel, infrastructure, and research output - should be created nationally, regionally, and globally. Emergent centers of excellence should be involved in the virtual networks of excellence.
• International institutions such as Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), InterAcademy Panel (IAP), and International Council for Science (ICSU) should be consulted to help in the formation and strengthening of nascent national and regional institutions. The participation of these international bodies will help new organizations to establish the requisite high standards and effective mechanisms of operation.
• Where bilateral scientific and technological agreements with S&T-advanced countries are established, provision should be made for the participation of qualified S&T personnel from neighboring S&T-lagging countries.

5. Upgrade ongoing research programs that address issues of national need

• Where relevant research institutions already exist, they should be reinforced or, if necessary, reformed. When reform is indicated, changes should be systemwide and carried out in ways that make the best use of scarce resources (including the local talent). Where there is much talent but the system is bureaucratized, it is crucial that reform includes the following:
  • Focus on themes, not institutions (i.e., abolish institutional entitlement);
  • Build up a small but select number of centers of excellence;
  • Build up a few nodes (around individuals) of top expertise;
  • Open up the research system to competitive grants;
  • Protect public-goods research;
  • Address essential long-term issues.
• All existing research programs and centers of excellence can similarly benefit from periodic expert review and evaluation. Techniques for such procedures should include, as appropriate, peer review teams, relevance -review panels, or benchmarking studies. Given the relatively modest scientific capacity of most developing nations, their merit reviews should ideally include appropriate experts from other nations. Such involvement of the global research community, possibly through a program of international cooperation among academies of science, engineering, and medicine, can make the merit review processes in developing nations more effective not just for particular programs but in general.

6. Establish mechanisms for S&T advice to government

• Establish trusted indigenous mechanisms for obtaining advice on scientific and technological questions related to public policies and programs. Informed and reliable counsel could come from specially appointed committees of experts, standing multidisciplinary advisory bodies, or independent institutions such as merit-based academies of science, engineering and medicine.
• Develop the means to assess and manage the benefits and risks associated with the development, production, or use of new technologies, such as those deriving from biotechnology. Government should therefore ensure that indigenous S&T capacities are in place not only to enable effective adoption of a new technology but also to help implement public-health, human-safety, and environmental guidelines or regulations associated with potential side-effects of the new technology. The possibility of long-term effects should be kept in mind when setting up such systems, which should remain fully adaptable to rapid advances in scientific and engineering knowledge.
• Coordinate technology assessments with other nations to permit the sharing of experience and the standardization of some types of risk assessment.

7. Provide information on S&T resources and issues to the public

• Encourage innovation in disseminating the results of publicly funded research and in turning them into new products and services that address local needs. Such efforts could include:
  • Consultative services, provided by national or regional research institutions, in areas such as agriculture, water and land management, housing, and health;
  • Cooperative partnerships between local citizens and research institutions for sharing up-to-date information of local relevance;
  • Empowerment of social entrepreneurs for supplying products and services significantly below market prices to people in need;
  • 'Information kiosks,' either publicly funded or for-profit, to help distribute useful information obtained from the Internet.

8. Upgrade educational programs and institutions

• Each nation should establish an S&T-education policy that not only addresses its own particular national needs but instills an awareness of global responsibilities (e.g., environmental). Consequent national projects should particularly aim to modernize such education at the elementary- and secondary-school levels (ages 5-18); and they should emphasize inquiry-directed learning of principles and skills while highlighting the values of science.
• Each government should focus resources on providing high-quality training for science/technology teachers. This will involve special efforts at all tertiary-education institutions, including research universities.

9. For S&T-proficient countries, share responsibilities for regional and international S&T training and research programs

• The S&T-proficient countries should cooperate with S&T-lagging countries in sponsoring world-class research and education through regional networks, which should have the following characteristics:
  • Research nodes of the networks should be recognized centers of excellence in developing nations with a strong research base; this connection would help catalyze the strengthening of S&T capacities among their less-developed partners.
  • The networks should stimulate interdisciplinary research and establish links with the member countries' private sectors.
• Centers of excellence in S&T-proficient countries should provide scholarships and research facilities, including the use of their own laboratories, to help achieve international cooperation with and among other developing nations. Where bilateral or multinational research and training programs are established with S&T-advanced nations, such programs should facilitate the participation of qualified S&T personnel from neighboring S&T-developing and S&T-lagging countries. These programs should also take into account the often-critical need for travel money.
• Regional S&T cooperation with other developing nations that leads to doctoral degrees, together with postdoctoral programs, should be promoted in national or regional centers of excellence, especially those that are in S&T-proficient countries among the developing ones. Fellowships for graduate students (master's and doctoral degrees) should be preferentially awarded to nationals from S&T-developing and S&T-lagging countries. These fellowships should include re-entry grants that allow the returning fellows to obtain some basic materials and instrumentation that will permit them to carry out research in the home laboratory and that will facilitate maintaining collaborative contacts with the research centers where they received training.
• The training of new scientists and engineers should be aided by networks that have already been established by practicing professionals in diverse specialties. These networks should be given enduring support by academic, governmental, intergovernmental, and private organizations.
• National governments and international organizations should provide the financial support and design the institutional framework to establish 'sandwich programs' that provide for a portion of educational training abroad.
• A number of programs and fellowships to support S&T capacity-building activities have previously been established by some countries and by organizations such as UNESCO, Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), and International Council of Science (ICSU). A database of all such activities should be created and posted on a Website available to all scientists and engineers, even those working in the remotest regions of the world.

10. Increase S&T career opportunities within the country

• To spur locally needed S&T activities, governments of developing nations should seriously consider providing, on a temporary basis, special working conditions for their best talents (whether formed at centers of excellence abroad or at home), including income supplements and adequate research support, with a primary focus on young scientists and engineers.
• Governments of developing nations, in collaboration with their national S&T communities, should be encouraged to build ties with their expatriate scientists and engineers, especially those who are working in industrialized nations.
• Incentives should be established to help encourage companies, especially in the developing world, to create in-house research units and hire S&T talent. Local governments could give them tax rebates or national recognition for building their human-resources capacity (say, through internship programs and contracted research). More broadly, a national strategic policy to promote research and development in a country's industries, including the provision of 'sectoral' funds, should be established. For their part, governments of developing nations should provide re-entry grants to encourage young scientists trained in the industrialized world to return home.

11. Develop digital S&T information sources

• Libraries should maintain electronic gateways for the sharing of digital information among researchers, teachers, and learners.
• Major hubs in the developing world should be organized for sharing digital information with research institutions in the industrialized world. This will facilitate access to some materials (in video format, for example) that require wide bandwidth not necessarily available everywhere. It will also serve the eminently sensible goal of backing up original material.

12. Develop effective policies for intellectual property rights

• Every country should develop a clear legal framework regarding the activities of the private sector in S&T capacity building, and it should be compatible with the national S&T policy while providing incentives for real technology transfer.
• Governments of S&T-proficient as well as S&T-developing countries should focus on licensing issues, accept strong intellectual property rights for new medicines, negotiate special agreements on generics for basic pharmaceutical products, promote local industry through partnerships with foreign companies, and amend their current legislation for intellectual property rights to emphasize the genuine invention of useful technologies while putting less focus on the protection of minor or intermediate technologies and processes. Such focus often discourages further research and development.
• Governments of S&T-developing nations should consider regional and multilateral cooperation and sharing of resources for implementing intellectual property protection, so that countries with limited technical resources do not have to duplicate effort, investment, and dedication of scarce talent.

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