May-June , 2022 | @ green
TECHNOLOGY
15
SIRIM Tech Venture ’ s services committed to intensifying research and development ( R & D ). This initiative ensures relevant parties are geared toward promoting the commercialisation of R & D and transforming intellectual property ( IP ) into exploitable commercial opportunities . The commercialisation effort is also part of economic development that supports initiatives toward shared prosperity .
Co-creation and co-opetition
Ajmain said there was a mismatch of supply and demand in the market , where sources of the technological innovations from academia were not mature enough to be economically exploited by the industries .
“ STV plays an essential role in connecting the respective industry with the sources so that the innovation can match the industry ’ s demand . In other words , we call it a market-driven approach ,” shared Ajmain before explaining the terms ‘ cocreation ’ and ‘ co-opetition ’, which act as stimulants to commercialisation .
“ Co-creates means the respective parties conduct the improvements collaboratively by broadening the application , increasing its frequency and improving the integration .
“ Meanwhile , co-opetition aims to gain better benefits in terms of branding and economic return and to grow the market by collaborating with your competitors and leveraging each other ’ s strengths .”
Strategic plan for technology commercialisation
Under its 10-year strategic plan , STV has outlined the Technology Enterprise and commercialisation Hub ( TECH ) Ecosystem™ , which encompasses all activities required for technology commercialisation . This TECH Ecosystem™ acts as a holistic framework in addressing clients ’ needs for commercialisation , in line with STV ’ s campaign ‘ Connect , Collaborate and Co-Create ’.
“ This initiative emphasises collaborating with existing commercialisation agencies and networks to bring more value from technological innovations . Thus , this full-fledged commercialisation hub will link all parties into one shared virtual network of commercialisation agencies and relevant partners .
“ This is a common platform dubbed as the marketplace for commercialisation and database of technologies at higher technology readiness level ( TRL ). Inside the system , various services to fulfil the needs of stakeholders such as project screening , technology assessment , technology valuation , market validation , product enhancement , and many more will be provided to increase the technology maturity and match the industry needs .
“ So in return , all parties will benefit in terms of new products , processes , business models , IP , income generation , and ultimately economic benefits for the country ,” explained Ajmain .
STV , as the commercialisation arm of SIRIM , conducts specific programmes with universities , industries , investors and other stakeholders to understand and match their needs . Among programmes conducted by STV are CEO Breakfast , CEO NeTZ and various industry-academia engagement sessions .
“ This is where the industry needs are collected , and academic needs are also captured . STV-academia collaborations are already gaining momentum , and the supply of technology will increase when the number of collaborations increases . For example , STV is promoting the commercialisation of IoT applications in precision farming to benefit the agricultural sector .”
Challenges to commercialise in-house innovations and technologies
Ajmain explained that relying on external funding to increase the TRL of research projects may delay the research output and commercialisation efforts .
He elaborated : “ The delay may also result in depleting technology in STV ’ s technology docket to be offered to potential takers . Competency enhancement is needed in new areas of frontier technology such as blockchain , AI , and others . Inventor-investor relations still lack maturity where investors only focus on matured technology for fast economic returns with a lack of culture for investing in R & D and less risk-taking .”
To overcome those challenges and help speed up the rate of technology transfer to the industry , SIRIM invests in seed funding to close the gap in the technology of TRL 5 and TRL 6 to a higher TRL .
“ It means we put our investment in the pre-commercialisation activities before the technology is ready for full commercialisation ,” explained Ajmain .
STV also embarks on investor relations to enlighten the technology development perspective , product liability , businesses and others . The strategies include capacity building in technology valuation , technology assessment , marketing and business development .
The digital transformation journey
According to Ajmain , SIRIM ’ s digital transformation started as early as 2010 and has rapidly evolved since 2019 .
“ The transformation focuses on three areas : the people , processes and technology . SIRIM ’ s digitalisation is changing its traditional data centre into cloud-based
SIRIM Tech Venture Sdn Bhd ( STV ) adopts the technology readiness level ( TRL ) as a methodology to verify technology maturity along the technology development value chain . STV will connect , collaborate and co-create with its partners to create economic benefits for the business community while transferring the technologies to the industries .
“ We offer commercialisation and advisory services ,” stated STV CEO Ajmain Kasim .
Under the commercialisation services , STV has specific services that will accelerate the commercialisation process , such as :
• Technology assessment
• Market feasibility study
• Techno-economic feasibility study
• Technology valuation
• Business linkages
• Market value validation “ These are the important things to understand before commercialisation because it involves investments and long-term economic benefits .”
We are all aware that Malaysia is trapped as a middle income-nation . We are a technological consumer rather than a technological driver or inventor .”
– Ajmain Kasim infrastructure and migrating from all systems into a new Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP ) system comprising human resources , finance , procurement and asset management .”
The digital data plan is also implemented to increase the number of digital talents in various areas , including Big Data , AI , IoT , blockchains , cybersecurity and others .
STV also contributes to this effort by adopting the office digitalisation in all its business operations which include streamlining all its commercialisation databases into digital reporting , reaching out to customers virtually through the iVenture app , digitalising the data submission for intellectual property assessment from universities , researchers and other inventors , and providing advisory to external clients on digitalisation efforts .
“ It is still a long journey , but based on the benefits gained from current successful implementations , STV will continue to capitalise on technological innovations for the benefits of our nation .” — @ Green
Ajmain Kasim