Shanghai, April 10th 2009.- If you only look at what the media says these days about Mexico, you probably are prone to believe that Mexico is a failed state. But it’s not and not only because the reasons provided by Enrique Krauze in his wonderful article published by the New York Times last month (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/24/opinion/24krauze.html?scp=1&sq=krauze&st=cse) My opinion is that is unfair to say that Mexico is a failed state not because the strengths of our democratic political system, as Krauze argues, but because the overall social peace of most of the last century gave birth to precious achievements we Mexicans need to thank, preserve and improve. One of these achievements is the network of institutions devoted to science and research in Mexico, a fact that by itself invalidates the claim that Mexico is a failed state.
In my first writing here about the quest of the positive, I argued on the need for the Mexican citizens who are for the construction of a better Mexico –as my self- on focusing on positive topics that allow us to present new and fresh ideas to change Mexico. Now I initiate my personal quest with this writing about what I have found about science, technology and innovation in my country. I am glad to announce that I have found lots of information in Spanish and English about the research and the sciences that are nurtured in Mexico.
Although Mexico is a country that does not ranks in any of the international lists of the world in terms of science and innovation, Mexico is not at all a country deprived of science developed by it self. I was stroke by the figures presented by Carlos Bazdresh Parada and David Romo Murillo in their paper The impact of science and technology in the development of Mexico (El Impacto de la Ciencia y Tecnología en el Desarrollo de México http://www.cidecyt.org/documentos/CIDECYT%2005-01.pdf) in which, based on statistics of the Mexican Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT www.conacyt.mx) they state that the share of the contribution of Mexican scientists to the total of scientific articles in the world has grown from 0.33% to 0.72% from 1993 to 2002. Their whole argument is worth citing:
1) Mexico has already a scientific infraestructure capable of doing world class science in all the fields of knowlegde;
2) Mexican scientists have been producing an increasing number of scientific articles published in the best scientific magazines, both national and international. Whereas in 1992 there were 2,015 articles by Mexican scientists in the ISI ( Institute for Scientific Information), in 2003 this number climbed to 5,783.
3) The number of members of the National System of Scientific Researchers is also growing fast: whereas in 1992 the system counted 6,602 researchers, by 2003 this number has climbed to 10,189.
Mexico passed in the last decade a Law for Science and Technology and as a consequence there are commissions in the Mexican Congress and Senate of Science and Technology. In addition, there is also a network of institutions devoted to science and technology:
Institutions in Mexico devoted to science and technology:
Academia Mexicana de Ciencias (Science Academy of Mexico) www.amc.unam.mx
Asociación Mexicana de Directivos de la Investigación Aplicada y el Desarrollo Tecnológico, ADIAT (Association of Executives devoted to the Applied Research and Technological Development of Mexico) www.adiat.org
Asociación Nacional de Universidades e Instituciones de Educación Superior, ANUIES (Universities and High Education Institutions National Association of Mexico) www.anuies.mx
Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, CONACYT (Science and Technology Council of Mexico, CONACYT) www.conacyt.mx
Foro Consultivo Científico y Tecnológico (Consultative Forum for Science and Technology) www.foroconsultivo.org.mx
Fundación México-Estados Unidos para la Ciencia (Mexico-US Science Fundation)
www.fumec.org.mx
Instituto Mexicano de la Propiedad Industrial (Industrial Property Institute of Mexico)
www.impi.gob.mx
Sistema Integrado de Información sobre Investigación Científica y Tecnológica, SIICYT (Integrated System for the Information on Scientific Research and Technology)
www.siicyt.gob.mx
In terms of scientific research the largest university of Mexico is UNAM, the National University of Mexico (www.unam.edu). The publication Science in UNAM 2007 (http://www.cic-ctic.unam.mx/cic/mas_cic/publicaciones/download/lcunam2007.pdf) gives an account of all the UNAM dozens of Institutes and Research Centers, which are so numerous that are classified according to families of knowledge: Biochemical and Health Sciences; Physics and Mathematical Sciences; Earth Sciences and Engineering Sciences. Among this vast network of institutions, the ones whose existence surprised me more were the Astronomy Institute, the Genome Science Institute, the Research on Materials Institute, the Energy Research Institute, the Applied Physics and Advanced Technology Institute and the Geo Sciences Center. These institutes invent and develop year after year a number of equipment, materials or processes that go unnoticed on the Mexican media. The UNAM Astronomy Institute, for instance, has developed telescopes that are now used in Spain and the Biotechnology Institute has created new antibiotics. UNAM is also one of the most important institutions in Mexico in charge of preserving its flora and fauna.
This is something we as Mexicans can take proud and is also something that a better media should highlight or at least mention more frequently.
Unam is Mexico's largest institution devoted to research on basic science but it’s not the only one. There’s also de Polytechnic National Institute (www.ipn.mx) and the Technological and High Studies Institute of Monterrey (www.itesm.mx) among others.
After learning on the existence of all this network of institutions, do you still believe Mexico is a failed state? I don't. Not anymore.
The problem is when you look for technological innovations or inventions produced in Mexico, which unfortunately are very scarce or almost nonexistent. The good news is that Mexico has a certain level of scientific infrastructure that so far Mexican companies and governments have not taken advantage. But now is time to change that reality. How? Marketing the Made-In-Mexico science and research to all those Mexicans or Foreign Companies who want them or need them. Doing this will have the double benefit of allowing the corporations that contract science or technology developments from Mexican sources to innovate as well as it has the potential of bringing the financial resources to the scientists of Mexico who so badly need them. And of course, this marketing of science and technology doesn’t have to be restricted to Mexico: since Spanish is our common language, we can sell them to other countries in Latin America.
According to Bazdresh Parada and David Romo, one of the most acute problems that has imperiled the conformation of an authentic National System for Innovation in Mexico is the lack of a link between scientists and corporations. Other weaknesses, according to the same authors, have to do with a cultural attitude rooted in Mexico in which science doesn’t play a central role in the mentality of our entrepreneurs. Finally lack of financing has also weighed against the marketization of Mexican science.
The distance among our scientists and our entrepreneurs creates a vacuum to be filled by us, this new generation of Mexicans, that can arise to become the bridge between these two essential edges of the line. Here’s the plan.
I am proposing to constitute as many as possible consultant agencies specialized on doing research about the research produced by our Universities and on the needs of our companies. This is one part of the job. The other one is to market our Mexican scientific assets, which means that we need to talk to scientists and to all the bureaucracy involved in the production of science in order to get their authorization to advertise and promote their capabilities among their final users, who should be the private companies interested in innovating. A third role of this kind of consultant firm or agency would be to propitiate the exchange between science and the market. In Spain for instance, the migration of scientists to corporations is favored, the same as the transfer of executives or engineers from corporations to the labs of research institutes
That is my proposal and that’s a project I will be happy to commit my self.
Obviously for that to happen it’s critical also to change the mindsets and probably some suspicions that may exist between scientists and entrepreneurs, the former for being against the market and the later for failing to see the strategic advantage that the science made in Mexico can bring to their businesses.
If we fail to publicize the achievements of our scientists, we miss an opportunity to encourage and recognize their –heroic- work and, sadly, we also miss the opportunity for taking the full advantage of what they are, which ultimately is a product of the collective effort of Mexican society and government.
In conclusion, who wants to enlist in this project of bringing the Mexican science to entrepreneurs and investors?
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