Research institutes complement universities by providing targeted focus on particular research topics

Research capacity and capabilities often differentiates developing and developed economies, and has been linked to the innovative capacity of a country at developing new products and services using knowledge gained from basic science research. Thus, countries with significant manufacturing capabilities at leading edge products and skilled manpower able to perform high end trouble-shooting and problem-solving often take the plunge in directing more resources into building a vibrant research ecosystem aimed at specific areas of science and engineering thought to be capable of powering economic growth. However, the key question continues to be: the relative emphasis between universities and research institutes given that both perform complementary roles in enabling research and development activities and capacity building. Specifically, the traditional focus of universities lay in fundamental research into natural sciences and engineering, while educating the next generation of scientists and engineers in the process. On the other hand, research institutes are often developed as specific centers of excellence such as in nanotechnology and stem cell biology, thought to be important to developing critical foundational capabilities in nascent fields. However, research institutes with narrowly defined research focus areas often lack the ability to think out of the confines of a research area in seeking complementary synergies with allied fields in solving important problems in science and engineering that often spans multiple overlapping fields. Hence, research institutes’ roles in society, and specifically, contribution to the development of a nation’s scientific capacity and capabilities rest critically in its organization, particularly its mission and focus areas. Typically, broadly defined research institutes gain greater synergies between different fields hosted outside or within the same institute; thereby, enabling the education and development of scientists able to grapple with interdisciplinary problems of importance. But, at the fundamental level, research institutes serve a singular and unified role: devotion of more resources and manpower to important problems that hamper the development of new methodologies and ability to understand nature, which, from an economic perspective, serve as future growth engines of a mature economy.