The Reorientation of Thailand’s National R&D Programmes - Limits and Challenges

Abstract

<p>Since 2016 Thailand has recognised a significant transition in research and innovation policy, with government increasingly acknowledging the importance of national R&D programmes and favourable institutional conditions as determinants to overcome middle income trap. Drawing a lesson-learned from successful experiences of South Korea and Japan, the Thai government decided to experiment the national large-scaled mission-oriented R&D programme, known as ‘Spearhead R&D Programme’. This novel innovation financing scheme was designed to accelerate the commercialisation and economic impact of R&D outputs. From the outset, it was clear that the outcome and impact of Spearhead R&D Programme was yet to be realized. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reorientation of Thailand’s research and innovation landscape with the focus on the efficiency of operation in relation to the objective of the Spearhead R&D Programme. It is found that the Spearhead R&D Programme is equipped with four novel conceptual and operational features including strategic national STI agenda, R&D commercialization, multi-year budget allocation and proactive research management. Yet, there were also potential limits and challenges that need to be addressed to move the Programme towards greater sectoral contribution with open innovation and flexibility in policy learning.</p><p> </p><p>Keywords: Research & Innovation Reform, Mission-oriented R&D Programme, Policy Experiment, Catch-up, R&D Commercialisation, Thailand</p>

The Evolution of University–Industry Linkages in Thailand

“…This reform emphasizes streamlining the national R&D program to be consistent with the national agenda. To accelerate the commercialization and economic impact of R&D output, the large‐scaled and mission‐oriented R&D program, known as the “Spearhead R&D Program,” was approved in 2017 for a test run of this policy experiment (Jutarosaga et al ., 2021). Later, the mission‐oriented R&D operation was established as the formal funding mechanism under the Science, Research and Innovation Promotion Fund (SRI fund), supervised by the Thailand Science Research and Innovation (TSRI), MHESI.…”