From science to commercialisation

By Cassandra Mascarenhas

A groundbreaking initiative to encourage the commercialisation and adoption of nanotechnology across differing sectors, the National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka hosted the country’s inaugural nanotechnology conference last week.

Aptly themed ‘Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in Sri Lanka: From Science to Commercialisation,’ the two- day conference featured a line-up of esteemed academics and professionals from various industries who debated and discussed various aspects of nanotechnology.

The National Science Foundation played a critical role in establishing the national nanotechnology initiative and it is expected that the nanotech initiative will support the industry in gaining a competitive edge via innovation and product leadership.

The initiative has resulted in the establishment of Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTEC) and the planning for the first advanced technology park at Homagama. There is the need for all research institutes, universities, industries and related business enterprises to understand and share knowledge in nanoscience and nanotechnology developments in Sri Lanka.

Adopting nanotechnology

National Science Foundation Chairperson Prof. Sirimali Fernando who played a vital role in spearheading the national nanotechnology initiative spoke on how the nanotechnology initiative commenced, its present state and some considerations for the future during the morning’s proceedings.

When she was appointed to the NSF back in 2004, it was generally agreed upon that the country needed a change in policy direction in terms of science and technology.

“We saw an opportunity in the global interest of nanotechnology which was initiated by the US in 2000 and soon after, the EU Japan, China, Korea and Taiwan followed suit. There was a considerable amount of interest and investment in nanotechnology at the time and there were 17 countries that had initiated nanotechnology initiatives at a national level. The projected target was one trillion dollars in the industry by 2015,” she revealed. Nanotechnology is a science that has been out there and has been converted to its current uses because of the ability it has to alter properties of material and it is technology that gives humanity huge protection. The NSF decided to adopt it as it was a new technology and the Foundation felt that it would be easier for Sri Lanka to venture into a brand new area rather than compete with the old. It is also a cost-cutting technology and the NSF recognised its potential to increase global competitiveness of global industries.

The national nanotechnology initiative

The NSF went on to appoint a task force on nanotechnology in 2005 which advised the Foundation on how the technology could be taken forward in the country by making 10 recommendations. Amongst the 10, the first was to set up two institutes of nanotechnology.

“That is where the NSF had an issue because in the past, we had set up many research institutes but what have they given back to society?” Fernando pointed out. “We decided to link up with some Sri Lankan expatriates abroad and set up an international advisory panel with four members. We came to the decision that setting up the institutes was not a good idea at the time.” This was due to the situation prevailing in the country at the time with a low percentage of high-tech manufacturing exports in Sri Lanka, limited capacity in science and technology, poor research infrastructure and low numbers of research and development personnel. In 2004, 70 per cent of the funding for science and technology came from the Government and a mere 0.6 per cent from the private sector.  It was understood that the potential of nanotechnology for socioeconomic development would not be realised by simply supporting another research institute. It was then that the NSF met Prof. Tissa Vitarana who, Fernando stressed, recognised the need for a national initiative and actively promoted the national nanotechnology concept and recommended it to the President to promote it as a national programme. The NSF’s vision is for Sri Lanka to emerge from poverty through a nanotechnology-based industry using the country’s mown raw materials and human resources. The Ministry of Science and Technology coming on board was a turning point for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI).

Public and private sector involvement

“We never really expected the private sector to come on board but when we spoke to them, the sector showed a lot of enthusiasm. Our initial partners were MAS, Brandix and Lodestar. Funding was the main constraint for implementation and a PPP became an imperative consideration. In October 2007, the Cabinet approved the setting up of a private company with five private sector companies and SLINTEC was set up as a PPP in April 2008 with the NSF, Brandix, Dialog, Hayleys, Loadstar and MAS,” she recalled.

SLINTEC has achieved quite a lot within a short space of time, Fernando added, filing five to six patents with two more patents awaiting consideration as of now. “I am very happy to say that the patents have been exploited to our benefit – nano-fertiliser and nano-titanium amongst them. We are now focusing on creating an ecosystem by building a nanotech park on 50 acres of land in Homagama.”

The NSF together with NASTEC is now preparing a national nanotech policy which will address promotion and support of nanotech research and development and commercialisation, the promotion of nanotech industries and regulations in terms of safety and quality.

The changing landscape of the Sri Lankan innovation system has resulted in a positive shift over the past few years. There is more experimental research done in the country, private investment in research and development has increased substantially. Fernando noted that in other countries such as South Korea and the US, the government first invests in technology after which the private sector takes over and she hopes to see the same happen in Sri Lanka. “In fact, it has to happen,” she emphasised.

Points to ponder

“I am personally very happy about the way in which nanotechnology progress has taken off but I am concerned about the pace at which it is progressing. As a country we cannot be happy about the pace at which it is progressing currently – we need to look at how we can accelerate this. The Government has to play a big role but the private sector too needs to get involved heavily. I’m also not sure how aligned the nanotech research and development is with national priorities,” she stated.

The nanotechnology initiative when it commenced was meant to be a five year project with a budget of Rs. 5.6 billion and yet the foundation for the nano-park, the main objective of the NNI, was only laid this year.

Fernando added that the inclusive access to state-of-the-art facilities needs to be ensured and further catalysethe development of other high-tech areas. “We need long term planning and need to set priorities for research and capacity building in nanotechnology. The fragmented disciplinary and sectoral research and development needs to be coordinated. We also need to catalyse the development of an ecosystem for research and commercialisation in all high-tech areas,” she concluded.

New tech makes business sense

The keynote address at the nanotechnology conference was delivered by Dialog Axiata PLC Group CEO Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya who called the forum a cutting-edge, forward-thinking and groundbreaking event.

“Sri Lanka can do it. Sri Lanka has all the potential, people, desire and drive to lead in the era of new technology. New technology makes business sense and the involvement of the private and public sectors will augur very well for research and development in Sri Lanka. Dialog is a good example of a case study where the latest technology made business sense,” he stated.

Wijayasuriya added that Sri Lankans need to come together from wherever they are in the world, from all sectors to take technology to where it belongs.

Outlining the characteristics in the era in which we live today, he noted that one very significant characteristic is that it is an era of change. “There doesn’t pass a day when we don’t remind ourselves that things are changing, that our thinking is from the past. That is nothing new. Everyone and everything evolves. Over the years, change happens. Technology came into the picture as things changed over time but now the change is happening very fast – that is the difference.”

We are living in times when change is and has to be fast. Wijayasuriya drew upon the example of the radio which took 38 years to reach 50 million people, the television reached the same number of households in 16 years, the internet five years, the iPod three and Facebook in a mere one and half years. If this was plotted on a graph, it would be an exponential curve – we live in exponential times.

“So I think that while as technologists we all went our different ways and we are at different ends of the spectrum, we have to acknowledge that things are changing so very fast that we are at the nexus of this change and therefore all of us are part of the change and we will also be victims of the change unless we run very fast,” he said.

A world in flux

He revealed that in anything related to technology, the top 10 jobs worldwide in 2012 did not exist in 2005. Today, we will be training people for jobs that we don’t even know of and these people will use knowledge, practices and processes that are currently unknown. It is a world in flux and Wijayasuriya stressed on the importance of being aware of the fact that the technology in our hands is a doubled edged sword. Sri Lanka needs to see how it can make this great speed at which technology is moving more sustainable than the technology itself.

“We are not creating anything that will last for more than a few years, unless you can make it sustainable. To do that, we really need to look into the uses of technology but we very seldom think of the users. Uses and users of technology are equally important and it is the latter that we need to really look at in times of exponential change. If you only focus on use, it will be invented by your student in not 10 years, but two years and the investment would be wasted,” he noted.

Looking at the users of technology and what the world is doing today, Wijayasuriya observed that the industry he works in is the key driver to this change, in the sense that the world is getting connected and every single citizen in this world becoming far more a part of a global village than ever before. Facebook alone as a country would be the second largest country in the world as of now.

Paradigms are changing, size today is immaterial, geographical boundaries are disappearing. Size no longer matters, he stated, because one person can create a change.

What comes from connectivity is a drive towards inclusion, making people more equal. People talk and share knowledge, the world becomes much flatter – day by day, the world is becoming a far more equal place.

“Through my own experiences pushing the frontiers of mobile technology has seen 19 million phones in the country today. Over 10 million people in this nation uses this digital device making them digitally empowered, connects them to the world and offers multiple services. All these sectors can reach out to at least 10 million people on an equal basis,” he said. “We all know that in the past, tradesmen used to ply the roads looking for business, they had to look for their customers. Today they deal as equal citizens with their customers, they just wait for a call.”

This is creating an environment where not only boundaries of geography, cast, age and creed are being displaced but also removes the concept of bastions of knowledge. The era where you could hold on to knowledge, invention and exclusive orientation to technology is also gone.

“We all try in some little way to hold back. The world is going in a direction where this is not sustainable and we have seen that in the open-source world where inclusion even in terms of knowledge is the objective of your endeavours.”

Inclusive versus exclusive

He advised the younger generation to take an inclusive approach to the use of technology. Dialog in 1997 was the last entrant into the market. As an unknown brand, Wijayasuriya recalled that the company has a very tough time coming in last and looked around for a point of entry into the market. When Dialog really studied the market, they found that the one thing in common to all the operators at the time was that they were following an exclusive business orientation by building products and services for only people who could afford it.

Wijayasuriya explained that this way of doing business limits the mind as well as the scope of what can be done. Dialog realised that this was an opportunity to make their products and services affordable, useful and available to as many people as possible and this, he emphasised, was the single most important innovation at Dialog.  “That single piece of thinking got us to number one in two and a half years. What this does is it take technology to empower people and it enables people to be more equal and mobilises a larger proportion of the economy towards business, entrepreneurship etc.,” he added. “A survey shows that for every dollar an inclusive business puts into technology advancement, the user of that technology will in turn give back four dollars to the national economy.”   He then described an initiative that Dialog is currently undertaking with SLINTEC to take ECG sensors to the masses by charging them a mere 50 to 60 rupees. “These are inclusive applications because we want to reach everybody. Why shouldn’t the poorer people in the country have the convenience of getting an ECG in the comfort of their own homes?”

The world is moving very fast and is not going to wait for Sri Lanka to catch up and Wijayasuriya pointed out that technology is the best way of accelerating and empowering 20 million people.  “Focus on what you do with this technology. Be aware that it is going to change, that your idea today needs to move to fruition and commercialisation. The use has to reach the user and in selecting your user, think of the poorest people in this country. If you can make everything useful, affordable and available to the poorest of the country, that is your opportunity,” he said.

“We understand the needs of the bottom of the economy coming from Sri Lanka and we need to make the most of that. Let’s not ape the developed world and the West. Develop things that can make immediate life-changing sense for middle and lower income people because the poor want to stop being poor, they don’t want to be marginalised anymore and technology is their path, where people will pay to bridge that gap of knowledge and that makes business sense. Be brave and move to commercialisation.”

 – Pix by Upul Abayasekara