Government supports More Use of Researches

The cabinet meeting earlier this week approved the draft of Thai Bayh-Dole Act and assigned the Science and Technology Ministry to co-ordinate the related agencies for  the law supporting a use of researches and innovations.

Dr. Suvit Maesincee, the Minister of Science and Technology, revealed on facebook page that the laws have paved the way for universities and government’s research institutes to do more researches for the better benefits as well as researches more on deep technology. This will enable universities with advanced technologies like MIT, Carnegie Mellon and Stanford to help develop startups to produce innovative products for the global markets.

The laws promoting the use of researches and innovation have been enacted in countries where science, technology and innovation are highly developed such as United States, Japan, Korea and India. In the US, the laws was approved and annouced in 1980 which resulted in more investment in researches and development of both private and public sectors. Then came 13,600 intellectual properties, about 3,000 patents submitted by the universities, and over 5,000 startup companies setup to gain knowledge transfer from universities, as well as over 250,000 job creations. This is why the US has become among the world’s top countries with technological advancement and capabilities.

Thailand has applied this concept and make it fit with the innovation economy system. At present, several universities and research institutes have started to conduct in-depth researches such as 9 Research Universities, Technology University, the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), and research institutes specializing in certain issues. When universities and research institutes own the researches, they can grant the licenses to manufacturing and service sectors more easily. Vice versa, the income will be returned to the institutes which will then be paid back to them. When researchers get income allocation, they would feel encouraged to do more quality researches that meet the needs of manufacturing and service sectors. Furthermore, if researchers can take the researches to further develop their own businesses, that would become a spin-off. They can set up a startup company to do businesses on technology and innovations instantly and keep up to the technological changes.

The regulation will result in significant changes in Thailand’s researches and innovations and be a mechanism that will encourages knowledge transfers from universities to private organizations, establish startups and companies which use technology and innovations to drive the country’s economy, create jobs, generate income to researchers, entrepreneurs and companies. As a result, government can collect more taxes and bring the income from taxes to reinvest in more researches. Therefore, this regulation will surely benefit the country’s economy in the long run.

The new ministry (which comes from the combination of universities, granting agencies and Science and Technology Ministry) will be the major driving force of this issue to strengthen the Technology Licensing Office of the universities and research institutes as well as support the researches and promote innovation businesses as soon as possible.