RESEARCH SUB-CONTRACTOR

A professor offers a comprehensive plan for the revival of Saudi Arabia’s research and innovation sector.

Al-Shamsi, a professor of civil engineering at Riyadh’s King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology, begins his work by harkening back to Islam’s golden age. From Cordoba to Baghdad, Muslims exported scientific breakthroughs across Europe, Asia, and Africa. With God’s help and a remodeling of Saudi Arabia’s national research and innovation system, he hopes that Muslims can again lead the world in exporting significant scientific advances. One of the biggest obstacles the author sees is the country’s current system of funding subcontractors to conduct research. Far too often, subcontractors divert their funding to foreign researchers and academic institutions for self-promotion and publication in prestigious international scientific journals. This undermines the Saudi research and development system by using limited government money to support foreign institutions. Moreover, despite thriving Saudi petrochemical, oil, and date industries, foreign governments and businesses not only manufacture their “entire production lines,” but also continue to wield influence by controlling the technical expertise necessary to maintain them. This reliance on foreign nations for technology and expertise also applies to the Saudi military. For Al-Shamsi, economic independence and homeland security will only be guaranteed by a new era of Arab innovation that serves the interests not just of individual researchers, but the nation as well. The author proposes dozens of intriguing ideas on how the Saudi government can foster homegrown innovation. These include the creation of new government councils that report directly to the prime minister, new patent laws and greater protections on intellectual property, and the funding of Saudi industrial expositions and scientific journals. Overflowing with national pride, this book will surely appeal to anyone interested in internal reform revolving around economic progress in the Arab world. But while the benefits of a scientific revolution may ultimately trickle down to the masses, the work’s target audience comprises government and business leaders. Reforms in human and civil rights are noticeably absent from a volume that focuses on reestablishing Saudi Arabia as an innovator of scientific ideas.

A thorough yet elitist program for Saudi Arabia’s economic revitalization centered on scientific development.