Strategies are like nutrition plans. They’re advisable and essential for the long term but do not spare us from exercising or unexpected surgery. Strategies comfortably surround innovation in Malta (and Europe) but the country is falling behind because it is not keeping fit and is avoiding critical short-term interventions. I believe this can be fixed, and this is my perspective.
Just like nutrition plans, strategies give us the feeling we are taking a serious step to address a concern with the hope it will get better in the long term. They provide us with a sense of comfort that we are doing our best today to have a better tomorrow. That is, however, just the start. Like nutrition plans, strategies do not execute themselves or save us from urgent interventions.
Despite various timely strategies and initiatives, Malta’s innovation needs immediate attention. The recent 2024 EU scoreboard placed Malta at 21st place out of 27 EU countries. This means we are also below the European average, scoring 88% of the EU average.
Putting the actual ranking aside, this scoreboard allows us to plan measurable and achievable short-term goals that will push us to a better ranking. Briefly, the situation is that the critical building blocks are there but fragmentation is jamming the progress that we could quickly achieve as the smallest EU member state.
One relatively easy-to-fix roadblock is the low spending on research and development (R&D) in the public and private sectors. Malta has been registering growth in its GDP in recent years, with a value of €4.9 billion in the first quarter of 2024. On the other hand, Xjenza Malta’s successful and highly fruitful Fusion R&D funding has a mere budget of €5 million for 2024. Boosting this budget would have a compounding positive impact on innovation and society.
Besides the scientific output, most of these funds go into the employment of young scientists. Through these projects, I witnessed first-hand young local talent finding opportunities in Malta, effectively preventing brain drain from the country in these cases.
Moreover, these individuals also combine such employment with their studies, positively scoring on the EU innovation leaderboard with further advanced qualifications in STEM subjects. Other young people also use this as a springboard to start new local high-tech enterprises and contribute to the economy. We are achieving this with a €5 million annual budget, a fraction of our GDP… imagine what we can achieve with an immediate intervention that slightly improves this budget.
This leads to the second roadblock. Empowering young scientists and engineers with local opportunities inspires our younger generations and children to believe one can work as a scientist in Malta. Their motivation needs to be strengthened because, on the one hand, it builds a national sense of pride in the scientific contributions that we develop locally while also ensuring that the best talent stays in Malta and contributes to our society and economy.
Young people’s engagement is challenging to measure. The O-level and A-level results from the May 2024 session are the only recent source that tells how Maltese young people are doing in STEM. The performance here is worrying; we must analyse it to address it. Are the MATSEC and university paths the only way towards innovation? Of course not but this serves as a good indicator of where young people are investing their efforts and aspirations.
Mathematics is the foundation of all scientific and technological pathways, for which we have many strategies. Worryingly, in the SEC or O-level, 48% of the 4,622 candidates either got a failing grade (6 or U) or did not turn up for the examination. Only 25% obtained the top grades (1–3). At A-level, 34% of the 501
candidates who registered for it either got the lowest grades (E-F) or were absent. Positively, 66% got grades between A and D, which the university would recognise as acceptable for many STEM courses.
These grades are a sound warning- Dylan Seychell
As an absolute number, this translates to 330 students obtaining a good grade at A-level mathematics. If they were to all proceed with their studies, it would mean that this small number would need to be split between numerous disciplines such as architecture, civil engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, relevant science degrees such as mathematics, statistics and physics together with digital technologies disciplines namely micro and nanoelectronics, computing science, information systems and artificial intelligence.
Due to my exposure to artificial intelligence, I also look at how computing is faring. The trend in computing is slightly better. At the O-level, 28% of the 741 candidates obtained the lowest grades or were absent. An
encouraging 40%, or 298 candidates, obtained a top grade (1–3). At A-level, the number of candidates goes down to 146 and 70% (102) achieve a pass grade between A and D.
These grades are a sound warning to everyone working on strategies and nutrition plans for innovation in Malta. The numbers of Malta’s performance in international scoreboards and the performance of local students are urging us to plan a few immediate interventions beyond strategies.
Malta’s innovation space needs immediate attention and action that builds upon solid strategies, initiatives and existing funding programmes. We need to focus on short-term interventions for well-timed strategies in which significant investment has been made.
The following three concrete steps can be taken.
Firstly, there needs to be an increase in R&D funding to at least €7.5 million in 2025 to create more opportunities for young scientists and accelerate innovation immediately.
Secondly, STEM education needs to be enhanced by providing support and resources to STEM teachers to inspire students. This can include material about successfully-funded projects in Malta that can be presented to students in class.
Thirdly, we must listen to our children and young people. The future is theirs and not ours. We must ask ourselves and young people how they aspire to shape the country and what they want to do in the future. Our responsibility is to provide all the information and resources they need to decide and grow.
These steps require relatively minimal investment and can start bridging the gap between strategy and action. They will also begin to nudge Malta forward in the EU innovation ranking while fostering a culture of innovation that benefits our society and economy. Moving beyond today’s comfort zones of nutrition plans is the only way to achieve a more comfortable and sustainable tomorrow.
Dylan Seychell is a lecturer in the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Malta.