A proposed plan to organize the activities of, and to structure, the R&D institutes in Palestine

Abstract

The proposed plan is built on the assumption that because of a shortage in financial resources, the R&D strategy in Palestine has to concentrate on two sections. The first section being the problems and challenges related to Palestine, and the second section the innovating and developing of products to create revenues for the Palestinian economy. This research paper will suggest some recommendations and tough measures, in order to guarantee that limited available resources are used most efficiently in the governmental research centers. This study will present the current situation of the R&D in Palestine, and compare it with some other countries. Building on this, goals can be laid out regarding the Palestinian case. The human and financial needs required to reach the goals were also determined. Different renowned models to structure some of the most important research institutes in the world were explored here. One model in particular seems to be most suitable for the Palestinian case. It is a model of research centers where every center concentrates on a specific scientific field, and usually each research center consists of smaller research groups. Some research centers will be managed by universities whilst others will be fully independent. To supplement this model, there is a need to establish a Support Services Center (for services like translation, hosting conferences…etc.) in order to offer services for the national research centers. Besides that, there is a need to activate a scientific research council that will be responsible for organizing the R&D activities and assigning and distributing some research tasks to the research centers according to the needs of the different governments ministries. Another part of the proposed model is the introduction of some Technology Transfer Units to increase the cooperation between the governmental research centers and the Palestinian private sector. In addition, there is a need to establish a national academy for the most prominent scientists and writers. There is also a need to build an office for the intellectual properties and patents, and to create the required legal environment. After illustrating the proposed structure for the research institutes, the research paper will present a list of proposed research centers in the different fields that are compatible with the national scientific research strategy. These research centers will be distributed into two periods in order to be in line with the limited current capabilities. The two phases make it possible to develop and split the research centers of the first period to reach the sought situation in the second period.