Innovation in Iraq Context

Innovation is the bridge between research and economic activity. In this post, I will explore innovation in Iraq and existing ecosystem with the aim of shedding some light on necessary steps to stimulate innovation in all fields in Iraq.

Innovation is the process of transforming research results or new ideas into economic value. Interest in innovation theory is increasing in both developed and developing economies. However, adopting modern innovation practices in Iraq is still a goal waiting to be achieved.

Iraq has suffered three decades of wars and UN sanctions that isolated Iraq from global developments, especially in science and technology. In Iraq, the linkages between research institutions and commercial firms are still dominated by practices of Iraqi organizations from the seventies of the last century. In this post, innovation in the Iraqi context is considered. Improving practices of innovation in Iraq, both in public and private sectors is vital for creating a vibrant economy. Such development is perfectly aligned with  Iraq National Development Plan (NDP) goals of economic diversification and job creation.

Establishing an innovation ecosystem in Iraq that supports modern innovation practices will enhance the role of universities and public research organizations in economic growth and help the transfer of research knowledge to economic activity through innovation and facilitate moving towards Knowledge Economy.

The post is organized along the following sections:

• Innovation Ecosystem in Iraq
• Funding for Research and Development in Iraq
• Intellectual Property Rights in Iraq
• Market Structure
• Modern Trends in Innovation – Technology Incubators and Technology Parks
• Conclusions

Innovation Ecosystem in Iraq

Innovation is mainly about creating a suitable ecosystem for research and development activities that lead to economic impact. Research activities in Iraq are usually carried out in universities, research organizations and industrial firms. Innovation focuses on development activities that follow research. In this section, I will try to give an overview of the major components of the innovation ecosystem in Iraq. Major components considered in this post include research organizations, research and development funding, economy structure, and intellectual property regulatory structure. In Iraq, different economic sectors are structured somewhat differently. After describing general components of the ecosystem, sector specific issues will be mentioned for two sectors, agriculture, and industry.

Research Organizations in Iraq

The two major institutions with diversified research capacity in Iraq are public universities and Ministry of Science and Technology. A brief overview is given below:

• In Iraq, the greatest research capacity is in universities. Iraq has more than 24 public universities in addition to several more private universities. Iraqi universities have a total faculty of about 40000 members with postgraduate degrees. In the Iraqi university system, all faculty members are required to do research in addition to teaching activities. More than 25000 postgraduate students are enrolled in Iraqi universities. This number is to be doubled by the end of 2017 according to the Iraq National Development Plan. Research in Iraqi universities covers all fields of natural sciences, technology, social sciences, and humanities. Universities emphasize basic and applied academic research. All public universities are owned by the government and offer free undergraduate and postgraduate education to Iraqi citizens.
• Research centers in the Ministry of Science and Technology cover the fields of Information and Communication Technologies, Space Technology, Industrial Research, Agriculture, Material Research, Renewable Energy, Chemical Waste Treatment, Environment and Water Technologies, and Nuclear Decontamination and Waste Management. These centers carry out research work, lead inter-ministerial projects and provide specialized technical services to line ministries and governorates.

In addition, there are other research centers within some ministries specializing within the scope of the respective ministry.

Funding for Research and Development in Iraq

Research funding

As was mentioned earlier, practically all research organizations are government-owned and funded by the government. Research is funded through the organization budget in all government-owned research facilities. Research programs are proposed and implemented by researchers. There is no national system for research grants where researchers compete for research funding as is the practice in many countries (e.g., research grants by NSF in the USA). Some ministries align their research activities centrally at the ministerial level but not at the national level. Although the National Development Plan can be used as a guide to set priorities, organizations priorities are left to the organization’s discretion.

Implementing a national research grant funding system will bring the benefits of;

• aligning research goals with national priorities,
• ensuring that research will be done through best proposals selected on a competitive basis,
• avoiding research duplication thus minimizing wasted resources.

Development Funding

Available development funding in Iraq is limited to funding by beneficiary firms. There is no Venture Capital. State-Owned Enterprises (SOE’s) allocate money for research and development activities (practically, all are allocated for development work). By the Law of SOE’s, each state-owned firm has to allocate a yearly budget of 7% of net profits for research and development. This level of funding is quite low for most sectors in today’s standards.

State-owned firms can spend this allocation either by their research and development department or source it out to outside universities or other government research centers. Research can be funded by firms through direct agreements with academic research organizations through their “Consultancy Bureau”. However, there are several limitations in this respect.

More funding and more diverse ways are needed to improve technology development efforts.

Intellectual Property Rights in Iraq

Here I will give a brief overview of regulations related to research and development, mainly Intellectual Property laws and their practice in Iraq.

Iraq has a full set of intellectual property laws covering patents, trademarks, industrial designs, trade secrets, copyright law and registering plant varieties. However, very few firms protect their intellectual property by using these laws. Contracts that include research and development activities rarely refer to intellectual property ownership and protection according to existing laws. With the exception of copyright and trademarks, practically no case of other intellectual properties was settled by Iraqi courts, although the law of patents has been in force for more than 40 years.

It is good to mention in this respect that copyright authorities in Iraq recognize software for copyright protection.

Market Structure

The structure of different economic sectors in Iraq differs considerably. In this post I will consider two sectors:

Agriculture Sector

Agriculture production is a private sector activity in Iraq. Ministry of Agriculture is responsible for supporting farmers through several government programs. Through these programs, Ministry of Agriculture helps farmers by providing seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. It provides also directions and recommendations to farmers to improve their production.

In addition to agricultural research capacity at universities and at the Ministry of Science and technology, Ministry of Agriculture has its own agriculture research center. Ministry of Agriculture also hosts the Board of Plant Variety Registration in Iraq.

Manufacturing Sector

The manufacturing industry is dominated by large state-owned enterprises. The rest is privately owned enterprises, mostly small to medium enterprises. Ministry of Industry owns more than 70 large industrial enterprises which represent most industrial state-owned enterprises. These enterprises work with diverse specialization from pharmaceuticals to machinery to cement production.

The Ministry of Industry operates the Board of Industrial Research and Development. The board manages six research centers. These six centers serve the Ministry of Industry owned enterprises in their research needs.

Modern Trends in Innovation – Technology Incubators and Technology Parks

There has been great interest in recent years, especially after 2000 to create technology incubators, technology parks, science parks, research parks and variations on this theme. The idea is to intentionally create an ecosystem that supports innovation and link different stakeholders for better coöperation. Stakeholders considered include research organizations and facilities, new startups, engineering enterprises, commercial firms, regulatory bodies, venture capital …etc. Such projects are now common in developed and emerging economies and are expanding at a fast rate.

International organizations interested in economic growth provide consultations and services to developing countries to start their technology incubator and park programs. The list of such international organizations includes the World Bank, UNIDO, UNCTAD, UNESCO, and others. Almost all countries in the region have started their programs and created such institutions during the past decade and all neighbor countries have such programs. However, interest in such projects developed only recently in Iraq. There are plans underway now. Hopefully, the first technology incubator in Iraq will be launched soon.

Conclusions

In conclusion, the existing National Innovation System in Iraq lacks several basic and important components. The relationship between economic firms and research organizations need to be strengthened and new modes of coöperation have to be developed. Improving the innovation system in Iraq will have an important impact on economic activity and will help in implementing two important goals of Iraq development, economic diversification, and job creation.

That was an overview of innovation system in Iraq now. Such an overview is important to go ahead with new initiatives and projects that link different actors in the innovation process more tightly and more efficiently. Research parks and incubator projects in Iraq are important in this respect.

However, this subject has many facets and people from government, firms, universities or being Iraq citizens may have other important views or can give more insight into this issue. All are encouraged to share their views through the comment box below.

If you like what you read above, share it with your friends. If you have comments or simply disagree, I will be grateful if you share your viewpoint in this blog through the comment box below. All submitted comments received will be published in the comments section of this page.

Samir Raouf

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