A major public policy goal is to develop a knowledge society in Ireland. To achieve it, the Government report called Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation, 2006-2013, commits to massive spending on research and development over the next seven years of €3.8 billion in public and private funds. Focusing on science funding is not the way to build a knowledge society, writes Finbarr Bradley
This will not lead to a knowledge or innovation society. The assumption that university research leads to innovation through commercialisation and higher economic growth is generally discredited internationally. Yet this is the logic that seems to guide Irish public policy.
Innovative development occurs through many sources, including the codified knowledge produced by scientific research. Knowledge is more than theories or know-how. Its tacit component is personal and may not even be expressed, and the intangible processes embodied in human relationships are its most valuable characteristics.
If the social or cultural context is ignored, investment in science and technology may not be money well spent. For a culture of innovation to take root, it must be founded on nurturing relationships of community and trust.
A knowledge society is about far more than commercial enterprise. It is inclusive, participative, concerned about quality of life and depends on the values people hold.
For instance, Finland displays a dynamic integration in the global economy yet its cultural identity, unique language and strong national sentiment feature as essential components in the development of its knowledge society.
UCD science policy analyst, the late Patrick Lynch, argued that the humanities and sciences should be bound closer together so that society consists of people who can communicate intelligibly with one another. He believed the work of scientists could be increased in significance by associating it with that of sociologists and stressed the danger of seeing science as something apart. He saw the divorce of technology from a system of values as one of the main explanations for the predicament facing mankind.
Innovation is more about what to do with knowledge than the knowledge itself. In recent years, this country has pursued a research model derived in a quite different context from across the Atlantic.
This is certainly not one that should be emulated at undergraduate level. Following the US research university tradition, the science strategy report ignores the crucial links between research activity, exploration, networks and the undergraduate experience.
Most undergraduates leave Irish universities short-changed, never having been exposed to the research process. If a proper culture of exploration was initiated in these early years, it could enhance the creative output during the postgraduate period.
The Irish academic enterprise fails to imbue a passion, or indeed even an appetite, for exploration in most young people. Faculty members often regard research and undergraduate teaching as existing in two different worlds. Research is an immense source of both personal satisfaction and recognition. To many, undergraduate teaching is a chore.
Most students fail to receive a coherent body of knowledge at university and graduate without knowing how to think logically, write clearly or communicate coherently. Lectures to classes of hundreds of students are the norm.
What is learned in these lectures often cannot be carried beyond the lecture-room. Even students with highly-developed classroom knowledge of a subject are often unable to put that knowledge to use except in the rarefied context of university examinations. This must change if a culture of innovation is to be generated.
Exploration must be at the heart of the undergraduate experience if a knowledge-based society and enhanced individual and community well-being are to be obtained. An innovation culture cannot be generated without a fundamental revamp of undergraduate education.
Students thrive in an atmosphere that nurtures creativity, imagination, intuition, personal development and mutual respect. It is only when young people believe their vision can change the world that they are willing to lead change and be innovative.
In the knowledge society, value is created more by intangible assets such as ideas, ways of working, emotions, community and the culture of organisations than through knowledge acquisition per se. Students must have practice and experience in exploring their inner emotional world.
A broad-based liberal education is of particular benefit as preparation for a knowledge society. Exposure to aesthetics, for instance, can contribute to nurturing the imagination of students. Integrated programmes, drawing on the arts, social sciences, humanities, physical sciences and technology, play a crucial role in generating a culture of innovation and creativity. Academic structuring of knowledge into separate disciplines is one of the main barriers to nurturing an innovative culture within Irish universities. Breaking down these barriers between specialisations can foster academic diversity and thereby individual creativity.
As the Welsh geographer E Estyn Evans put it: "it is at the fences, along the borders, that discoveries are likely to be made".
Throughout its long history, the university has embraced the importance of introducing undergraduates, its first constituents, to exploration and personal reflection. This must continue with renewed focus in the years to come if we are to become not only a knowledge society but, more importantly, a caring society.
Prof Finbarr Bradley is a faculty member of the Economics Department, NUI Maynooth.