STI sustainable policy development

Abstract

Community and industry engagement by higher education organizations and academic are sometimes prone to accusations of exclusive or academic 'talk-fests' which can reinforce rather than resolve the bridgeable disconnect between the general community and particular organizations with vested interests (Grayson, 2010). Concrete modes and strategies of linking knowledge to action' are needed to build upon the participatory exchange or mediation of stakeholder perspectives and interests. This paper reports on the exploration, development and application of the kind of convergent and applied methodology which might: (a) better link theory and practice as a basis for the clusive goal of sustainability', and (b) also encourage and optimize authentic collaborative problem-solving as a key to community and industry engagement by higher education. It will do so in relation to two interesting and exemplary case studies as part of a funded study into 'policy-building partnerships with a focus on 'science, technology and innovation'. These authentic collaborative case studies (one with a significant industry focus and the other with a local impoverished community in the Philippines) also represent an international collaboration between the University of Technology Malaysia and the Pampanga College of Agricultural Sciences, Philippines. The first case study explores the emergence or development of a sustainable design concept for PAC to support a 'Save Mt. Arayat' campaign. This is a proposed higher education-community collaboration to reverse the degradation of not only the local environment for various stakeholders (farmers, etc.) but also the associated threat to a local Filippino community and their livelihoods. The second study explores the design of a proposed PAC initiative to work with the Philippines Racing Industry to provide an immediate yet sustainable solution' to an urgent and mysterious problem of horse infertility which currently threatens the viability of an important industry. The study looks at how such a response will require the kind of integrated yet also concretely practical 'systems thinking and methodology' which converges both an optimization of scientific research support but also the related application of both an effective knowledge management principles and 'stakeholder' perspectives.