The Role of Stakeholders in Managing Government Research and Development Funding for Defence Industrial Innovation: The Case of Malaysia

Figures & data

Table 1. Comparison of Malaysia’s defence government R&D budget¹.

Malaysia Plan	8th	9th	10^th	11^th	12th
Years	2001-2005	2006-2010	2011-2015	2016-2020	2021-2025
STRIDE R&D Budget (RM mil)	2.2	17.5	9.8	17.8	17.8*
USD (mil)	0.52	4.15	2.32	4.22	4.22

Sources: Wan Hanafi (2021); STRIDE (2020) * Approximate figures under the First Rolling Plan of the 12^th Malaysia Plan

Table 2. Comparison of Malaysia’s defence R&D allocation against various countries.

Country	Defence R&D Spending based on the latest information (USD)
Japan	2.64 billion for 2022^a
South Korea	4.14 billion for 2022^b
Singapore	425 million for 2021^c
Malaysia	4.22 million^d

Sources: ^anippon.com 2021; ^b (Grevatt and MacDonald 2021); ^cGlobal data 2021; ^dWan Hanafi 2021

Table 3. Selective country-specific researcher distribution (Per Million People).

Country	2015	2016	2017	2018
China	1150	1196	1224	1307
Indonesia	n.a.	178	215	215
Japan	5173	5209	5304	5331
Malaysia	2308	2396	n.a.	2184
Republic of Korea	7013	7086	7497	7980
Singapore	7006	6935	6802	n.a.
United Kingdom	4319	4357	4341	4603

Source: World Bank Website.

Table 4. STRIDE Researchers Compared to Various Defence Research Agencies.

Country	2021
STRIDE, Malaysia	165
DSTA, Singapore	3000
DSTG, Australia	2300
DGA, France	9700
ATLA, Japan	1800

Source: Wan Hanafi (2021)

Figure 1. An MIT Approach to Innovation: ecosystems, capacities & stakeholders. Source: Budden and Murray (2019), pp. 7.

Figure 2. The Defence Research and Development Stakeholder Engagement Framework (DRDSEF. Source: Authors.

Table 5. Roles and position of the interview participants.

Stakeholder Segment	Description of Respondents’ Role	Code
End-User	A full colonel with vast experience in military combat; and offset management	EU1
End-User	A full colonel with experience in military logistics and operations to support MAF	EU2
Academia	A high-level official leading in research and Innovation in a University	AC1
Academia	A senior lecturer in a university who was also involved in the development of Malaysia Defence White Paper 2019	AC2
Government	A senior management who oversees defence industry	GOVT1
Government	A senior management who oversees defence science	GOVT2
Industry	A COO of a defence-oriented company in the aerospace sector	IND1
Industry	A senior manager of a defence-oriented company in the automotive sector	IND2

Table 6. STRIDE Personnel Breakdown.

POST	QUANTITY
Premier Grade B	1
Premier Grade C	2
Management & Professional Q Scheme	78
Management & Professional Non-Q Scheme	8
Support 1 Q Scheme	54
Support 1 Non-Q Scheme	89
Support 2 Non-Q Scheme Q	33
MAF	3
TOTAL	268

Source: STRIDE (2021)

Table 7. Examples of defence R&D collaboration by the MDI companies.

NAME OF CO. AND SECTOR	NAME OF COLLABO-RATIVE R&D PROJECT	COLLABO-RATION PARTNERS	BRIEF INFO ABOUT COLLABO-RATIVE RESEARCH	TYPE OF R&D	REFERENCE
ATSC Aerospace	Overhaul Task Cards SU- 30MKM Multi Role Combat Aircraft	Belarus company, IME Technology; Malaysian companies such as Caidmark and Epic Aero; UiTM. DGTA Malaysia. PUSPEKA and STRIDE (ATSC, 2019)	Creation of an overhaul manual for Sukhoi aircraft that saved the country up to RM1.2 billion. The collaborative R&D project also enabled ATSC to penetrate other prospective markets such as Algeria, Indonesia, and Vietnam (ATSC, 2019)	Development of innovative product	Interviewee, ATSC (2019)
DEFTECH Automotive	Unmanned Ground Vehicle R&D Project	End-user. DEFTECH; and NDUM	NDUM grant for this research program is conditional upon DEFTECH using the outcome of the completed Unmanned Ground Vehicle	Research and Product Development	Interviewee DEFTECH (2021)
OpenApps ICT	Mobile Adhoc Network (MANET) technology for radio	Savronik, Viasat, MIMOS and Universiti Malaysia Pahang	The collaboration is still ongoing	Product Development, focusing on the Malaysian environment/operation compatibility	Interviewee OpenApps (2021)
UMW Aerospace	Manufacturing and supply of fan cases for the Rolls- Royce Trent 1000 and Trent 7000 civil aerospace engine programmes	Rolls-Royce	Transfer of technology/market access/human capital development related to advanced manufacturing and supply of fan case for Rolls-Royce. The collaboration ended in UMW becoming a Rolls-Royce long-term strategic partner	Product Development	Interviewee Defence Industry Division (2021)
MILDEF	4x4 High Mobility Armoured Vehicle	End user STRIDE	MILDEF revealed the 4 × 4 HMAV prototype in February 2021. Production is expected to commence in the first quarter of 2022	Research, Product Development, Testing	Army Technology.

Source: Defence Industry Division (2021)

Wan Hanafi, W. M. 30 July 2021. “Institut Penyelidikan Sains Dan Teknologi Pertahanan – Science and Technology Research Institute for Defence (STRIDE)”. Presentation slide, RTKP Sharing Session, Ministry of Defence, Malaysia

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Interview ATSC. 2019. Interview with ATSC official. In discussion with author. 6 September

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