Workforce development isn't enough for innovation

Being one of the fastest growing regions in the world, Asia Pacific’s stature in the scientific community is growing as is the region's ambition to play a greater role in shaping research through science diplomacy. I have had the good fortune of connecting with delegates from Singapore and South Korea in conferences last year. Similarly I had the opportunity to engage virtually with researchers from Australia during Australian Academy of Science’s flagship event ‘Science at the shine dome’ in 2025.

A few days ago I attended the International Science Council’s ( Asia Pacific chapter) quarterly meeting. Three things that stood out during my interactions were : focus on workforce development, democratization of science for greater public participation and emphasis on sustainability.

All three issues are highly relevant but for Asia Pacific in particular workforce development takes special priority as STEM courses are often viewed as a path to a prosperous future. But there is a big gap between working in science and engineering vs actually setting the direction of scientific research.

The first goal is pragmatic and practical. It requires institutions to build ecosystems that can help them match the industrial output of developed nations.

The second and third goals are more idealistic. Developing nations may not find resources or a workforce that is willing or able to take risks to pursue the unknown that can actually increase public participation if it succeeds. A case in point is artificial intelligence that was built entirely in secret by a handful of people guiding the overall strategy. It gave immense leverage to those who could produce chips ,had massive data centers and an army of programmers created using similar “workforce development” programmes that are being executed right now.

Science has the potential to create new industries and it has already proven itself through several industrial revolutions. But each one of them came when norms were broken and attempts were made to try something new.

Increasingly the countries are going to find that their goal of workforce development is in conflict with their desire to shape science while fulfilling the stringent requirements of sustainability. For greater public participation there is an urgent need for industrial decentralisation. This requires invention that can be leveraged. That is impossible as long as policies are designed around “catching up” with a pragmatic view of achieving economic resilience and societal prosperity. History agrees. Invention is the way to prosperity and not the other way round. Prosperous economies and empires have often simply withered away in absence of invention.

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Akshat Jiwan Sharma

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