INTRODUCTION TO SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES*

by

Roger Posadas

Science and technology cover a wide spectrum of different activities such as basic research, applied research, experimental development, engineering, and others, all of which are terms in science and technology policy. Unfortunately, the internationally accepted definitions, distinctions, and interrelationships of these activities are unfamiliar to many people, including some local scientists and technologists who are supposed to know better. We must therefore define at the outset what we mean by these activities, adopting the standard UNESCO and OECD definitions. (3)

1. The Distinctions Between Science and Technology

Science refers to that dynamic, cumulative systems of verifiable concepts, principles, methods, laws, theories, and processes which seek to describe, understand, and predict natural phenomena.

Technology, on the other hand, refers to that dynamic, cumulative system of reproducible methods, techniques, and processes which may be derived from empirical know-how or scientific knowledge and which are used by human societies for the production, improvement, and distribution of goods and services as well as for the satisfaction of other material needs.

In terms of aims, science seeks to discover the workings of nature while technology seeks to invent new or improved tools and materials (“hardware”) or better ways of doing things (“software”). In other words, science is concerned with “know-why”, while technology is concerned with “know-how”. The result of a scientific activity is new knowledge which is then usually published as a scientific paper, while the result of a technological activity is a new product or process which is then usually appropriated in the form of a patent and commercially exploited.

A scientist or practitioner of science is one who is actively engaged in generating new knowledge, as distinguished from a scholar or professor of science who merely studies or teaches science. A scientist is knowledge-oriented, while a technologist is product-oriented or process-oriented.

___________________*EXCERPTED FROM : Roger Posadas, Towards the Development of the Natural and

Mathematical Sciences in the Philippines ( A Science Policy Study Undertaken by the Kilusan ng mga Siyentipikong Pilipino under the sponsorship of the President’s Center for Special Studies, March 1982).

3See, for example, UNESCO, An Introduction to Policy Analysis in Science and Technology. Paris, 1979.

2. The Distinction Between Research and Experimental Development

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Research is the process through which scientists attempt to discover new scientific knowledge. It is often symbolized by the letter “R”.

Experimental Development is the process in which technologists utilize research findings or empirical know-how in order to devise new or improved products or processes. Often symbolized by the letter “D”, it covers activities up to the fabrication of prototypes, the stage of pilot-plant testing, and the various pre-investment studies needed to ascertain the technical, economic, and social feasibility of the new product or process.

The distinction between research and experimental development (“R & D” reflects the distinction between science and technology. Research is what scientists do, while experimental development is part of what technologists do.

3. Basic Research, Applied Research, and Mission-Oriented Research

Basic or Fundamental Research is that type of research which seeks to discover new scientific knowledge for its own sake without regard to its possible application. An example of this type of research is afforded by research activities in theoretical physics.

Applied Research, on the other hand, is that type of research which seeks to discover new scientific knowledge for the explicit purpose of applying it to some specific practical objective in connection with a product or process. An example of this type of research is afforded by research activities in the agricultural sciences.

Although there is no clear-cut delineation of the boundaries between basic and applied research, it is obvious that by definition all research in the frontier areas of physics, biology, chemistry, and mathematics are basic research, while all research in the agricultural, medical, and engineering sciences are applied research.

Mission-oriented Research refers to those tightly organized, time-framed, and vertically integrated R & D activities which are directed towards the attainment of a specific technological objective or mission in connection with some social, economic, political, or military goal. The classic examples of mission-oriented projects are the “Manhattan Project”, which produced the first atomic bomb, and the “Apollo Moon Project”, which landed the first man on the moon.

4. Engineering, Innovation, and Technology Transfer

Engineering refers to the processes required to make technology operative, that is, it consists of the design, construction, and utilization of machines, equipment,

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installation, or processes in the production and service sectors of the economy. The fundamental task of engineering is the provision of services for production. It serves as the link between R & D and production.

Technological Innovation refers to the process of assessing, selecting, evaluating, designing, adapting, testing, implementing, producing, and utilizing, and diffusing a new technology. It thus covers the chain of activities from technology assessment to pre-investment work (feasibility studies) to engineering to production or implementation to marketing or utilization to diffusion. It also includes the selection, importation, and implantation of a foreign technology.

Transfer of Technology refers to the process of transplanting an operative technology, which has been developed elsewhere, into a country where it has never been utilized before.

5. Scientific and Technological Services (STS)

Scientific and Technological Services (STS)cover a mixed group of activities which collect, store, process, package, and disseminate scientific and technological information or provide other auxiliary services in support of research, experimental development, and technological innovation. Included among STS are the following:

(a) Scientific, Library, Information and Documentation, Translation Services

(b) Scientific Testing, Analysis, Calibration, Instrumentation, Standards, Quality-Control, and Computing Services

(c) Scientific Observation, Surveying, Mapping, and Monitoring of the Environment and Natural Resources

(d) Scientific and Technological Collections, Museums, Exhibitions, and Gardens

(e) Scientific and Technological Assessment, Extension, Consultancy, Advisory, Counseling, and Patent Services

(f) General-Purposes Data Collection and Statistical Compilation.

6. Scientific, Technological, and Technical Education, Training, and Popularization

Science Education refers to the teaching of science and mathematics at the primary and secondary level. Its principal aim are (a) the inculcation of scientific values, attitudes, and outlook as prerequisites to the development of a “scientific culture”, (b) the propagation of the scientific method and critical thinking, and (c) the transmission of basic scientific concepts, ideas, and principles needed for

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attaining some basic degree of “scientific literacy”.

Scientific Education and Training refers to the education and training at the university level of basic and applied scientists as well as science teachers.

Technological Education and Training refers to the education and training at the university level of professional engineers, R & D engineers, and other technologists.

Technical Education and Training refers to the education and training of technicians and technical teachers.

Scientific and Technological Popularization refers to the promotion of science consciousness among the general public through popular media presentations of scientific and technological wonders, science books and magazines for laymen, science fairs, etc.

7. Interrelationship of Science and Technology

In past centuries, science and technology developed separately and independently with only occasional, weak, but symbiotic interactions between them.(4)

Nowadays, however, much of modern advanced technology (e.g. transistors, microchips, recombinant DNA, polymers, lasers, computers, robots) have depended so much on the recent findings of modern science that modern science that modern technology can be rightly called applied science. In turn, modern scientific research has become heavily dependent on the latest technological “hardware” and “software”.

In the current scientific and technological revolution, the time interval between scientific discovery and technological utilization has been steadily decreasing: it is nowadays estimated to be about a year or two.

This close interlinkage and strong interaction between modern science and technology may be represented by means of a double-feedback system as depicted in Diagram 1, which has been adapted from UNESCO(5)

8. The Disciplines of Science and Technology

For completeness, we should also list down the various disciplines of science and technology according to the following more or less standard classification. (6)

___________________(4)Derek J. De Solla Price, “Is Technology Historically Independent of Science? A Study

in Statistical Historiography.” Technology and Culture 6 (1965) pp. 553-568.(5)UNESCO, op. Cit., p.8(6) cf. UNESCO, Methods of Priority Determination in Science and Technology. Paris,

1978.

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4Basic Sciences or Natural and Mathematical Sciences:

BIOLOGICAL SCIENCESCHEMISTRYEARTH SCIENCES PHYSICSMATHEMATICAL SCIENCES

Applied Sciences or Technological Sciences :

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCESENGINEERING SCIENCESMEDICAL SCIENCES

9. Various Aspects and Types of Technology

Technology, as previously defined in Chapter II, is the system of know-how, skills, techniques, and processes which enable societies to produce, distribute, install, maintain, or improve goods and services needed to satisfy human needs. It may be embodied in either a material form (i.e., machineries, equipment, tools, factories, structures, and other “hardware”) or an informational form (i.e., patents, blueprints, diagrams, formulae, and other “software”).

A technology, which gets implemented and utilized, becomes an operative technology. It is also useful to distinguish between an operative technology’s static aspect and dynamic aspect.(7) The former refers to the know-how and skills which permit its possessor to execute the technology’s routine operations (e.g. key-punching, typing, welding, metal-pressing, casting, etc.) The latter refers to the know-how and skills which endow its possessor with a comprehension of the scientific principles underlying the technology and thus with a capacity to develop and design an improved version of the technology.

“Advanced Technologies”, “Frontier Technologies”, or “High Technologies” are terms used for the modern, sophisticated technologies which began to develop since the 1950’s out of modern research findings in the basic sciences. Among such technologies are solid-state electronics, computers, cryogenics, lasers, polymers, genetic engineering, materials science, nuclear fission power, nuclear fusion power, space technology, oceanic technology, automation, robotics, etc.

“Appropriate Technologies”, “Intermediate Technologies”, or “Alternative Technologies” refer to those technologies which are low-cost, low-level in complexity, small scale, labor-intensive, suited to local materials and skills, designedfor decentralized and renewable energy sources, and oriented towards rural

_________________(7)Farrel, T.M.A., “Do Multinational Corporations Really Transfer Technology?” in

Integration of Science and Technology with Development, op. Cit., p. 71.

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industries. These terms have gained prominence in recent years in the context of Schumacher’s book, Small Is Beautiful.(8) In a rural setting, appropriate technologies would be intermediate between a carabao-drawn plow and a tractor.

10. Technological Innovation

Technological innovation, as previously defined, is the process by which R & D results are applied, implemented, utilized, and diffused. It is a complicated process requiring considerable human, material, and financial resources. In fact, the magnitude or expenditure on innovation is usually much greater (by at least ten times) than the amount spent on R & D.(9)

Technological innovation, as also pointed out earlier, is not an automatic consequence of R & D. It results more from the “pull” of national development needs or of market requirements rather than from the “push” of scientific discoveries or technical inventions. The need for technological innovation may arise in response to either of the following:

(a) market opportunities or requirements at the business enterprise level; or

(b) national development goals and objectives ( or “missions” ) at the government level.

Therefore, the first major prerequisite of technological innovation is the clear and concrete delineation and prioritization of objectives and needs, whether at the national or enterprise level. To determine the required S & T inputs, these social, economic, or political objectives and needs must then be translated into a set of specific S & T objectives, targets, and requirements.

The second major prerequisite is the availability of an adequate pool of resources -- human, infrastructural, informational, and financial -- which can be mobilized to carry out the process of technological innovation. These resources include not only the country’s scientific and technological potential but also its entrepreneurial and managerial capabilities, financial resources, infrastructure for production and distribution, and international resources.

The third major prerequisite is a technological innovation strategy which specifies the ways and means through which the resources ought to be harnessed in pursuit of the selected objectives.

These three prerequisites thus entail the formulation of a national science and technology plan at the government level or an equivalent plan at the enterprise level. Such a plan is essentially an attempt to formulate a coherent set of answers

_________________ (8)Schumacher, E.F., Small is Beautiful. Abacus: London, 1973

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(9) UNESCO, Science and Technology in Asian Development, op. Cit., p.146

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to the following questions:

(a) What are the scientific and technological components (or required S & T inputs) of the selected socio-economic objectives

(b) What are the optimal ways and means of harnessing scientific and technological resources in order to attain these objectives

(c) What are the scientific and technological resources that ought to be developed in order to insure an adequate supply of needed S & T inputs?

11. The Two Modes of Technological Innovation

Technological innovation -- the process of implanting a new technology in the production or service sectors of the economy -- can be implemented through two modes:

(a) Domestic Generation and Utilization of New Technology - This is the process in which scientific knowledge is locally developed and applied through the sequence of research --- experimental --- development --- engineering --- production or implementation --- diffusion

(b) Importation and Assimilation of Operative Technology - This is the process of “technology transfer”, whereby an operative technology developed elsewhere is transplanted into the country through commercial or other channels.

UNESCO uses the terms “vertical transfer of technology” for the domestic generation of technology and “horizontal transfer of technology” for the importation of an operative technology.(10) We believe, however, that the term “vertical transfer of technology” is inappropriate because what is involved in this process is not a mere displacement or relocation of a technology, as the word “transfer” connotes, but a qualitative transformation of knowledge from usable knowledge into used knowledge, from science to technology. Thus, in this paper the term “transfer of technology” shall be used strictly in its proper sense of transplanting an operative technology from one social/economic/political/ cultural setting to a different one.

12. Channels and Types of Technology Transfer

Technology may be transferred in the form of technical expertise, software (technological information), or hardware (machines, equipment, and materials).

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__________________ (10)UNESCO, An Introduction to Policy Analysis, op. Cit., p. 51.

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Transfer of technology may proceed through either of two channels:

(a) Non-commercial Transfer - These are transfers of technical expertise, information, or equipment through bilateral or multilateral S & T assistance and cooperation programs

(b) Commercial Transfers - These are transfers carried out through contractual arrangements with transnational corporations (TNCs) and other commercial firms.

The main types of commercial transfer of technology from highly developed countries (HDCs) to less developed countries (LDCs) are the following:

(a) Sale by HDC firms of machineries, equipment, tools, and accessories to LDCs through marketing agreements with LDC agents and distributors;

(b) Sale by HDC firms of complete industrial plants to LDCs on a turnkey basis;

(c) Lease by HDC firms of their operative technologies to LDC firms for the manufacture of foreign-brand products under a licensing agreement;

(d) Direct investment of a TNC in an LDC through the establishment of an LDC subsidiary of the TNC;

(e) Entering of a TNC into a joint venture with an LDC firm; and

(f) Sale by HDC firms of technical services to LDCs through service contracts or management contracts.

13. Stages in the Absorption of Foreign Technology

A foreign operative technology usually passes through several stages of absorption before it is fully assimilated by the receiving country:

(a) Use of imported machinery, equipment, and products;

(b) Provision of local maintenance, check-up, and quality-control services;

(c) Establishment of repair workshop;

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(d) Local assembly or packaging of the foreign product;

(e) Local production of individual parts to on-site assembly;

(f) Local production of major components geared to on-site assembly;

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(g) Fitting up of machinery and organization of production (i.e., manufacturing engineering);

(h) Design engineering of new machinery, equipment, or products;

(I) Experimental development of prototypes and pilot plants.

14. TNC Constraints to Technology Transfer

While TNCs are often identified as the major vehicles for commercial transfer of technology, their actual practices obstruct the effective transfer of technology to LDCs. Among their notorious practices are the following:

(a) Concentration of all R & D in their parent company based in an HDC;

(b) Restriction of the know-how transferred to an LDC to the static aspect of the technology;

(c) Distribution of the manufacture of product components among several LDCs to prevent a single LDC from acquiring the complete technology;

(d) “Closed-door” manufacturing of a high-technology product within free trade zones in an LDC to prevent absorption and diffusion of advanced technologies;

(e) Attempt to obtain monopoly and then monosony on the national market in an LDC.

15. Costs of Technology Transfer

The costs involved in commercial technology transfer can be classified as direct costs and indirect costs;

Direct Costs:

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(a) Expenses incurred in acquiring the necessary technical know-how at the pre-investment, investment, and operational stages of the commercial transfer

(b) Payments for patents, manufacturing licenses, trademarks, etc.

Indirect Costs:

(a) Outflow of foreign currency due to overpricing by TNC subsidiaries of imports of intermediary products, spare parts, and equipment

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(b) Outflow of foreign currency due to repatriation by TNC subsidiaries of their profits to the TNC parent

(c) Indirect costs arising from contractual restrictions by TNCs on the export of products by their subsidiaries

(d) Indirect costs arising from accounting manipulations of TNC subsidiaries which enable them to minimize payment of local taxes or customs duties

(e) Indirect costs of various other inputs, resources, and expertise linked to commercial transactions of technology transfer with TNCs

(f) Indirect costs entailed by the stifling of domestic technological innovations and the perpetuation of technological dependence on TNCs.

16. Measures to Reduce Costs of Technology Transfer

Among the measures that an LDC can take in an attempt to reduce costs of technology transfer are:(11)

(a) Unpackaging - Differentiation and separate evaluation of the various inputs contained in the investment-cum-technology package. This can help strengthen negotiating capacity in the selection and acquisition of the technology and other foreign inputs under convenient financial terms

(b) Unbundling - Disaggregation of the technological input into its core components (such as process know-how and basic engineering) and peripheral components (design engineering, civil, electrical and other engineering, pre-investment services, technical assistance in plant layout, etc.). This helps to identify those components that can be supplied by local consulting and engineering services, local suppliers of intermediate and capital goods, and local R & D institutions.

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(c) Alternative Sourcing - Search for alternative sources of technology so as to increase capacity for bargaining and selection. This requires an effective S & T intelligence system for collecting and processing information on various types and sources of technologies.

It should be pointed out, however, that in most cases TNCs are able to counter the above measures because of the following:

_________________(11)Vaitsos, Constantine, “Government Policies for Bargaining with Transnational

Enterprises in the Acquisition of Technology” in Mobilizing Technology for Development.

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(a) Tendency of operative technologies to become standardized

(b) Cartelistic collusion of TNCs in the international market

17. Impacts of Technology Transfer

Technology transfer can have the following impacts on a host LDC:

(a) Technological Impacts - These are the effects on the LDCs scientific and technological development

(b) Economic Impacts - These are the effects on the LDCs trade patterns, access to markets, industrial restructuring, local infrastructure, employment, etc

(c) Socio-Cultural Impacts - These are the effects on the quality of life, consumer preferences, social mobility, lifestyles, culture, etc.,

(d) Political Impacts - These are the effects on political independence, foreign policy, composition of elites, etc.

Of crucial importance to science and technology policy is the far-reaching impact of technology transfer on overall national scientific and technological development. Unfortunately, this impact is usually obscured because of the tendency of LDCs to put together emphasis on the immediate development impacts of imported operative technologies. This short-sighted approach can lead to the depreciation and the restriction of efforts to build up the national scientific and technological potential.

18. Domestic Generation of Technology

The process of innovation by domestic generation of technology is nowadays undertaken through the vertical integration of basic research, applied research, experimental development, and engineering within so-called “mission-oriented programs, which are carried out in a mission-oriented R & D institution

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or a technological innovation center. This vertical type of integration may be contrasted with the “horizontal integration” of research according to scientific disciplines which are carried out mainly in universities and sometimes called “discipline-oriented” research.

Mission-oriented R & D programs aim to develop new technologies or adapt existing ones for the purpose of meeting specific technological needs arising from national developments goals. The classic examples of such programs are the Manhattan Project which produce the first atomic bomb and the Apollo Project which landed the first man on the moon.

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19. Stimulation of Domestic Technological Innovation

Among the means of stimulating domestic innovation are the following:

(a) Promotion and financing of inventions and their commercial utilization

(b) Encouragement of industrial firms to form cooperative research associations for the purposes of improving productivity or adapting new manufacturing processes

(c) Establishment of industrial innovation centers (e.g. Korean Institute of Science and Technology, Applied Science Research Corporation of Thailand, etc.) which will be responsible for adapting or developing new products and processes.

20 Importance of Domestic Technological Innovation

Though it may appear that the modernization of LDCs is possible through technology transfer alone, there is a general consensus that domestic technological innovation by LDCs is essential to their development for the following reasons:(12)

(a) Domestic technological innovation is indispensable to the satisfactory solution of problems arising from the peculiarities of an LDC s climate, soil, geology, and other environmental factors.

(b) Domestic technological innovation is essential for a full awareness of the latest available technologies abroad and for an optimal selection of the most suitable foreign technology to be imported.

(c) Domestic technological innovation provides an LDC with the scientific and technological information needed to strengthen it bargaining position in the negotiation of commercial technology transfer.

(d) Domestic technological innovation is essential to the successful adaptation and absorption of foreign technologies.

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21. Relationship Between the Two Types of Innovation

It should be clear then that the importation of foreign technology and the domestic generation of technology are not alternative policies but rather complementary aspects of technological innovation. A satisfactory strategy for technological progress must involved an optimum combination of assimilating scientific and technological advances from other countries and of strengthening the domestic capacity for R & D , innovation, and diffusion. As UNESCO puts it,

____________(12)UNESCO, Science and Technology in African Development, op. Cit., p. 153

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“A balance must be established between the volume of scientific information and technological know-how imported on the one hand and the national scientific and technological infrastructure, on the other. This problem is particularly acute in the developing countries. Although the amount of technological knowledge imported by a developing country depends upon its economic potential and the aims of its economic policy, it needs an adequate scientific infrastructure if it is to keep in touch with scientific research in other countries and be able to absorb the scientific information and technological know-how imported from them.”(13)

The main link between the importation of technology and domestic generation of technology stems from the fact that an LDC can achieve technological self-reliance and progress only through a strong domestic capacity for initially adapting and assimilating the best available foreign technology and eventually generating its own technological innovations. It has to be stressed that an LDC which confines itself to the adaptation of foreign technology will always find itself technologically and economically dependent on others. An LDC must therefore strive to achieve technological self-reliance on an advanced level in order to attain a self-reliant, self-sustaining economic progress based on domestic technological innovations.

The interrelationships between the importation of foreign technology (“horizontal technology transfer”), the domestic generation of technology (“vertical technology transfer”), and the national planning process are depicted schematically in Diagram 4, which has been adopted from UNESCO.(14)

22. Importance of Basic Research in Technological Innovation

While the need for domestic technological innovation in an LDC is generally recognized, the importance of basic research the innovation process still has to be emphasized for it is not yet obvious to everybody that applied research and innovation can never survive as self-generating activities without the necessary component of basic research.

Basic research in an LDC serves the important functions of (a) providing informational access to the dynamic aspects of modern technology and (b) providing advanced training for the country’s corps of scientific experts.

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It is for these reasons that the UN World Plan of Action stresses the necessity of basic research even in the early stages of an LDC’s national development. (15) The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) points out the importance of basic research as follows:(16)

_____________________ (13)UNESCO, The Role of Science and Technology in Economic Development, op. Cit., p. 17(14)UNESCO, Introduction to Policy Analysis . . . op. cit.(15)United Nations, World Plan of Action . . . , op cit., pp. 9-12.(16)OECD, Science and Development, Paris, 1968.

13“. . . I t might be argued that a small country would do well to

concentrate on applied research and live on the exploitation of research produced by the larger countries of the world. Such a policy would be doomed to failure since the country in question would quickly lack a general scientific consciousness of world advancement sufficient to allow it to select for application those advances specifically significant to its economy. It would also lack trained research and development. In fact, by neglecting fundamental research, a country would be condemning its own industry to obsolescence.”

23. Basic Research and the New Scientific and Technological Revolution

The need for a strong basic research capability in an LDC becomes even more crucial than ever before in the light of the new scientific and technological revolution which has been producing such sophisticated, high technologies as microelectronics, computers, lasers, synthetic materials, genetic engineering, and robots and ushering in a new post-industrial civilization which Alvin Toffler calls the “Third Wave”.(17)

While the old technologies such as steel making or oil refining are based

on the relatively simple electromechanical principles discovered in the 19th century, the new sophisticated technologies are based on modern scientific knowledge of atomic and molecular processes and interactions. This means that the mastery of the dynamic aspects of modern technologies requires an advanced knowledge of such basic fields as solid-state physics, laser physics, low-temperature physics, polymer chemistry, molecular biology, etc. It is for this reason that the new fast-growing industries being spawned by these new, high technologies have come to be known as “science-based industries” or “knowledge-intensive industries”.

The technological gap between HDCs and LDCs is certainly being widened further by this new scientific and technological revolution. At the same time, however, it has now become easier for LDCs to bridge this gap because the advanced become easier for LDCs to bridge this gap because the advanced scientific knowledge, which holds the key to the mastery of the new high technologies, is universally accessible to research workers in the basic sciences of physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and earth sciences. Thus, a strong basic research program directed towards the generation of selected high

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technologies provides the means by which an LDC can leapfrog the technological gap, develop its own science-based industries, and achieve a certain degree of advanced technological self-reliance.

Therefore, if an LDC is determined to overcome its technological and economic dependence and to attain a self-reliant technological and economic progress, it should undertake a massive long-term national scientific and technological development program whose principal component is the full development of the natural and mathematical sciences and whose central thrust is the mastery, generation, utilization, and diffusion of selected high technologies such as microelectronics, computer technology, biotechnology, laser technology, materials technology, etc.

* * * END * * *

_________________ (17)Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave. New York: Bantam Books, 1980

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