Examination of Witnesses (Questions 740
- 741)
MONDAY 10 MAY 2004
PROFESSOR MOHAMMED
WAHAB
Q740 Albert Owen: But should money
not follow that dynamism?
Professor Wahab: It takes some
time and requires planning.
Q741 Chairman: What do you think
about the technium idea?
Professor Wahab: I think it is
a very good idea. I heard a lot about technium because this is
a standard agenda at the WDA board. It is a very good concept,
and helps link incubation facilities with support from the university.
I think it is good because it has a brand, which is very important.
We also have to be very careful not to think that this is the
solution to our innovation and R&D problems. It is one way
of doing things, and it is not the only way. We need to experiment
and explore many other forms. The technium experience will yield
results in the very near future, but the near results I do not
personally value because they are very new. Let us look what happens
in five years' time. The difficulty with purely incubation is
that it is no more and no less than that. If you ask a lot of
academics or people who are managing universities about what they
get out of having a technium, they will tell you, "not a
lot". They will say: "We will put our own money in and
hope to get something in the future." Alongside the technium,
ideally we need to develop the R&D institutions that I was
talking about. Those are a different kind of organisation, so
we need both.
Chairman: Thank you very much, Professor.
Thank you for coming.
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