Celebrated Saudi Researcher, Statesman, Professor and Delegate to the 2015 Paris Agreement Publishes New Book Offering Rare Inside Glimpse and Analysis of Multi-Billion-Dollar Funded Saudi RDI Ecosystem

SAN FRANCISCO, March 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Mohammad Ahmad S. Al-Shamsi (https://www.researchsubcontractor.com/) recently announced the release of a brief but powerful exploration of the unique internal research and development system developed by the Saudi government during the petroleum economic revolution of the last 50 years. "Research Sub-Contractor: Management Models of the Decline of the National Research and Innovation System" offers Dr. Al-Shamsi's analysis of an astounding national achievement, while proposing multiple practical management solutions to improve, reorganize and mitigate the wasteful decline of the current system. Dr. Al-Shamsi's research is currently available in multiple formats on Amazon, Lulu, Blurb and Barnes & Noble.

"The national research and innovation system is the nation's wealth generator," said Dr. Al-Shamsi. "In times of peace, the innovation capacity generated from a national research, development and innovation (RDI) system helps safeguard that nation's prosperity and prepares it in anticipation of times of war. The concept of 'Research Sub-Contracting' is very common in Saudi Arabia and its wealthy neighboring Arabia Gulf countries. It is a discouraging and problematic practice though, and it must be stopped before any effective remedy can be applied to existing RDI systems."

"Research Sub-Contractor": Synopsis of Specific Concepts Explored

A research system that is product-based or glutted with consumer-related concerns cannot best serve the intellectual interests of a nation. At the forefront of a new industrial and social revolution, national research and innovation systems must instead shift their focus toward incentivization-based research to reclaim their position as a pillar of national security and economic concern. This is first achieved by defining and understanding three key roles within that system: researchers, research contractors and research sub-contractors.

• Researchers: Those who engage in creative and systematic work to increase the overall stock of human knowledge. Discoverers of new applications.
• Research Contractors: Conductors of the research of others, through verbal or written agreements, without holding authorship rights.
• Research Sub-Contractors: Conductors of the research of others, while pretending to be an author or co-author of that research. Hold authorship rights without donating original intellectual efforts to the overall research.

"Saudi Arabia understands the importance of these concepts and others, which explains its historical funding of RDI over the past 50 years," said Dr. Al-Shamsi. "But that system is in need of deep, thoughtful introspection and an ideological overhaul if it is going to continue to serve the nation effectively. I've explored how this RDI ecosystem has worked in the past, and offered succinct solutions and suggestions for its future expansion and continued good maintenance."

About Dr. Mohammad Ahmad S. Al-Shamsi

Dr. Al-Shamsi has worked in academia for almost 15 years, having secured his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada at the age of 29. He is best known in the West for his work as a formal delegate in Saudi Missions related to selected United Nations meetings and agreements like the Climate Summit, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Paris Agreement of 2015 and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Dr. Al-Shamsi has published peer-reviewed articles in high impact journals in addition to co-inventing and holding patents for multiple advanced technologies in the fields of nano technologies, combat desertification, climate change, green solutions and environmental remediation. Having studied higher executive management at Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, Dr. Al-Shamsi has held several governmental positions in the Saudi research and innovation system – primarily as deputy director of the research institute and deputy director-general of the directory of research grants. Dr. Al-Shamsi has served as an adjunct professor at Imam Mohammad Bin Saud University, teaching courses in engineering, in addition to having held a position as Associate Professor in the prestigious King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST).

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SOURCE Dr. Mohammad Ahmad S. Al-Shamsi