The General Law on Science, Technology and Innovation, published today in the Official Gazette (ordinary edition number 94), will come into force in sixty days with the aim of strengthening the connection between the national development strategy and sectoral and territorial policies, removing obstacles so that research results transcend the academic sphere and fostering a knowledge economy.
A Legal Instrument to Prioritise the Practical Application of Knowledge
Approved by the Cuban Parliament last December, during the sixth ordinary period of sessions, the norm aims to provide the country with a legal instrument that fosters a culture of innovation, prioritises the practical application of knowledge and orients scientific and technological efforts towards solving concrete problems and the nation’s sustainable development.
Doctor of Sciences Armando Rodríguez Batista, Minister of Science, Technology and Environment (Citma), told Granma that it is the fruit of the collective construction of the Cuban scientific community, with the active participation of researchers, professors, students, entrepreneurs, agricultural producers, managers and communicators.
New Figures to Energise Innovation
Rodríguez Batista highlighted that it is the result of the evolution of the national science and innovation policy and the culmination of the transformations promoted in recent years, which envisage the incorporation of new figures to energise innovation:
The National Council for Science and Innovation, as a space for discussing policies at the highest level of Government
The Government Management System based on Science and Innovation
Science and Technology Parks
Science and Technology Foundations
Interface Companies in the Universities
High-Tech Companies
The incentives introduced for scientific production and innovation
Essential Challenges of the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation
Beyond what has been stated, the Law also addresses the essential challenges facing the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation today, such as:
Human potential
The lack of financing in foreign currency
The insufficient use of knowledge in decision-making
The urgency of increasing the visibility of its economic and social impacts
International insertion of Cuban STI
The norm also promotes the international insertion of Cuban STI, whose most recent example is the Joint Call for research projects between Citma and China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, on the themes of Artificial Intelligence and Natural and Traditional Medicine.
According to the head of Citma, it also recognises the leading role of the Academy of Sciences of Cuba as an independent institution served by the Council of Ministers, and ratifies the ethics and vocation of service of Cuban scientists and innovators.
Complementary Regulatory Package
The regulatory package published in the Official Gazette also contains Decree-Law 139 on the Academy of Sciences of Cuba, and Decrees 154 and 155 which establish the Regulations of the Science, Technology and Innovation Law and of the innovation and rationalisation activity, respectively.
