Improving the Research & Innovation Ecosystem

1. Improving the Research & Innovation Ecosystem by R. Chidambaram Principal Scientific Adviser to Govt. of India & DAE-HomiBhabha Professor, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, India Lecture in the INAE Seminar on “Towards a Better Innovation Ecosystem”, New Delhi, September 21, 2012.

2. Research & Innovation Ecosystem An Ecosystem, in biology, is a community of organisms interacting with one another and with the environment. And there are functional aspects of the system – energy flows within the system; utilization of the natural resources in the system; its sustainability; etc. We have to paraphrase these aspects in the context of the Research and Innovation Ecosystem. R. Chidambaram

3. The Layers in a national Research & Innovation Ecosystem(Research, Development and Innovation are all inter-linked) • Innermost layer – School Education System • Higher Education System • Research & Development System – Many Dimensions • Innovation System – Many Sub-layers • Leadership • e-science infrastructure • International Cooperation • Government Policy R. Chidambaram

4. The Components of an Excellent Ecosystem • Talented young people • Adequate Funds • Strong Infrastructure • Appetite for Risk-Taking • Leaders Support for both Basic Research and Applied Research and establishment of a strong manufacturing base (the services sector alone is not enough) are essential for developing an excellent National R&I Ecosystem R. Chidambaram

5. The Leaders (They create their own Ecosystems) • SrinivasaRamanujan : The ‘magical genius’: SOLOIST • C.V. Raman : Created the next generation of physicists • HomiBhabha : Created a whole field: ‘Atomic Energy’ - it was actually a ‘leader swarm’ backing Bhabha • J.N. Tata : Created the concept of ‘Indigenous Manufacturing Industry’. R. Chidambaram

6. “Advice to a Young Scientist” Always work on "Important" Problems. …Peter Medawar (Nobel Prize - winning Biologist) - Important to Science or to Society! This advice is useful for everybody, Scientist or otherwise! My motto when I was Director BARC: “Relevance or Excellence, preferably both”. R. Chidambaram

7. RESEARCH & INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM • Many S&T institutions in India have a high brand equity – IISc, IITs, BARC, etc. • Multiple leaders converging to the same point create excellent institutional ecosystems – e.g. Gôttingen University in Germany (associated with 45 Nobel Laureates): Gauss, Riemann in the 19th Century; achieved its academic peak in the beginning of the 20th Century – Hilbert, Klein, Born, Sommerfeld. R. Chidambaram

8. Paradigm Shifts in Interpreting Innovation • From : “Put Innovation into the Product” • To: • “Innovation is the Product” ... Kevin Rivette (Boston Consulting Group) • “Innovation in Process trumps Innovation in Product” .. Lester Thurlow • […processes of manufacturing and distribution; “on-site and off-shore business model of the IT Industry (KiranKarnik)”;…] • “Innovation in Process + Design trumps Innovation in Process alone” • …William Buxton • [… extracting value from creative insights e..g., - Indian textiles; design-inspired innovation…] • We must examine India’s strengths in all these approaches. • from my address in TIFAC-National Academies(US) meet, Delhi, 18, Dec. 2007

9. “The Many Dimensions of Indian Innovation” ‘Because India is so large and so diverse and because change is occurring at such a rapid pace, it is impossible to talk about a single innovation policy. Conditions vary widely among technologies, among industries and among regions. For example, India is on par with global leaders in some technologies (nuclear power, space), well behind in other sectors (productivity of small and medium enterprises), and in a position to leapfrog into global leadership in some areas (tools for rural development)’. from Chidambaram, “Indian Innovation: Action on Many Fronts”, In “Issues in Science and Technology” Special Issue on ‘Global Tour of Innovation Policy’, National Academy(US), Volume XXIV, No. 1 Fall 2007, pp.59-62.

10. Collaborative Innovation The concept of collaborative Innovation – we normally associate innovative concept creation with individuals – is based on the idea of “swarm creativity” and transcends International borders. Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINS) are cyberteams enabled by the Web to share knowledge “directly and not through hierarchies.” “Collaborative Innovation” was the theme of the January 2008 Davos meeting of the World Economic Forum which I attended as a member of the Faculty. But I would like to suggest that we should also think of altruistic Collaborative Innovation while tackling the problems of pandemic diseases Climate Change threat and Cyber security, without worrying about IPR issues. from my address in the Science and Technology in Society Forum Kyoto, October, 2009

11. The Large Hadron Collider Model (Knowledge Diffusion through International R&D Collaboration) The world’s largest accelerator has been built in the Centre for European Nuclear Research(CERN) in Geneva – a more than 4 Billion U.S. Dollars machine. Under an agreement signed in 1996 when I was Chairman AEC, India contributed 40 Million U.S. Dollars – worth hi-tech equipment like a thousand superconducting sextuple magnets, etc. and advanced ‘grid’ software. Half of this contribution has been put into an ‘India Fund’ which will support Indian scientists who will work with the Accelerator. Indian scientist groups are also participating in the construction and experimentation with two giant Detector systems – CMS and Alice – TIFR and VECC/SINP lead the Indian teams for these two experiments (post-script: CMS was one of the 2 detectors involved in providing the recent experimental evidence on the Higgs Boson). Collaboration with CERN has helped in nucleating the presently fast growing e-Research Infrastructure in India. R. Chidambaram

12. Raman Effect and the Higgs Boson • For discovering the Raman Effect, a physicist was enough, with a few students. • To look for the Higgs Boson, we have the multi-billion dollar precision – engineered Large Hadron Collider and teams involving hundreds of scientists , across international borders --- studying the data from various detectors. And we need an e-science infrastructure. • So the way we do science has changed and the ecosystem must adjust to this fact R. Chidambaram

13. ITER (International TokamakExperimental Reactor) (an example of International Collaboration as ‘Equal Partner’) Joint Venture of 7 parties ITER Fusion Power: 500 MW Plasma Volume: 840 m3 Plasma Current: 15 MA Typical Density: 1020 m-3 Typical Temperature: 20 keV ITER complex at Cadarache, FRANCE (an artists view) India also welcomes international participation in our ‘Mega-Science Projects’ like GMRT. Courtesy : Y.C. Saxena

14. National Ignition Facility (NIF), Livermore & Laser-Induced Fusion Experiment (LIFE) (an engineering marvel; I visited NIF in April 2012)

15. Advanced Ultra Super-Critical Thermal Plant ( an example of synergising exceptional component capabilities) For the next 2 or 3 decades, most of our capacity addition may come from coal-burning. Need for Advanced USC coal-based plants, where the steam temperature is 700-750 deg.C. While the main R&D project is aimed towards the full development of a 800 Mwe A-USC plant, my Office has supported two projects, which can be called pre-projects, one for the development of boiler tubes and the other for blade material. Consortium of IGCAR, BHEL and NTPC – Dr. Baldev Raj spear-headed the initial effort, now Shri S.C. Chetal. Two new indigenous materials have been developed by IGCAR for boiler tubes, with the help of MIDHANI and NFC: 304HCu SS Tubes Alloy 617 M tubes Today, for advanced technology projects, fragmented capabilities have to be synergised. Such synergism should be considered an important component of the ecosystem. R. Chidambaram

16. Research Delivery Development Mechanisms for establishing ‘Coherent Synergy’ in the Ecosystem for Technology Development and Delivery (Industrial Development vs Rural Development ) Through innovative Academia-Industry Interaction Interfaces for ‘Pre-competitive Applied Research’ and through ‘Directed Basic Research’ , for Industrial Development Examples: CAR, CMAT and CAREL of PSA’s Office Through Innovative Technology Delivery Systems for Rural Development. RuTAG (of PSA’s Office) is an open platform innovation strategy. RuTAGCentres are there in seven IITs Synergy is enhanced by e-connectivity R. Chidambaram

17. National Knowledge Network On Conclusion of Final Phase Aims to connect all Knowledge Institutions in India through a high-speed all-optical fibre low-latency network • 31 PoP • 89 Backbone Links • 1500 Edge Links • 860 connected Regional and International Research Collaboration can be enhanced by connecting such Knowledge Networks Courtesy: R.S. Mani, NIC Here is a huge opportunity to indigenise the manufacture of high-speed network products

18. ‘Developing’ & ‘Developed’ Countries : A Basic Difference Thermodynamic Equilibrium between Knowledge in the Academic System & Knowledge created in or transferred to Industry (in Developed Countries) Lack of such Equilibrium (in Developing Countries) That is why the R&I Ecosystems are different in India at present and, say, the U.S.A . But Things are changing rapidly in India R. Chidambaram

19. Can India become a research & innovation leader? I think so, provided we create an excellent research & innovation ecosystem; provided we have proper 'technology foresight' to make the right technology choices, in a national perspective; and provided we introduce 'Coherent Synergy' (a phrase coined by me some years back) in our S&T related activities. Without ‘Coherent Synergy’ among its various components, establishing an excellent R&I Ecosystem is not possible. R. Chidambaram