Speech delivered by Dr Maria Attard, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development at the
launch event of the Institute for Sustainable Development, University of Malta
Aula Magna, Old University Building, Valletta
Friday 22nd January 2010
Prime Minister, Ministers, Rector, Ambassador, Professor Batty, Distinguished guests and colleagues;
I welcome you to this launch event of the University’s new Institute for Sustainable Development. Apart
from launching officially the Institute, we take the opportunity to introduce ourselves to you and to
propose to you opportunities for collaboration which would benefit our shared interests but also the
interest of our country.
The Institute’s objectives give us an opportunity for collaboration through its aims for interdisciplinarity
and the application of technology to support strategy and decision making. In most decisions today there
are many factors that require attention and information! One decision can have a number of impacts on
other things which in many cases are overlooked. Technologies such as Geographic Information
Systems and other similar technological tools provide today the facility to link various aspects of the
problems we are faced with. Take the problems of pollution and its relationship with economic
development; quality of life concerns like accessibility and mobility, employment, housing, health and so
on.
All these problems require interdisciplinary approaches to understand the processes within and develop
tools that are able to handle the various data types, data sources, analysis and visualisation in an
efficient and user friendly manner.
The Institute for Sustainable Development will aim to use these technologies, apply them to real-world
scenarios and subsequently encourage commercialisation, enterprise and business start-ups of the same
research output. This obviously does not exclude research that comes from industry and is fed back to
industry through professional development programmes, contract work and services offered through our
academic expertise.
All these opportunities arise from the objectives of the Institute as listed in its Statute. We aim to:
 assist through interdisciplinary research in the realisation of national plans to improve the
infrastructure, productivity, entrepreneurship and the quality of life in Malta;
 provide advice and assistance on issues of sustainable development in Malta;
 promote the use of, and deployment of Geographic Information Systems and other information
systems as a tool for decision support and strategic planning;
 promote and catalyse science and technology commercialisation, the creation of start-ups and
new business ventures, and the transfer of innovation and technology to industry;
 organise undergraduate and postgraduate courses within the scope of the Institute subject to the
Statutes and Regulations of the University;
 network and liaise with similar institutions overseas; and
 disseminate knowledge through publication, seminars and teaching programmes.
I am very lucky to have an interdisciplinary board that brings to the Institute not only personal
professional experience and expertise but also opportunity for integration with the various faculties and
departments that they represent. Through this expertise and experience the Institute will deliver not only
interdisciplinarity but also high standards of quality.
I am a strong believer in the power of collaboration. In my working life as a geographer I have teamed up
with architects, economists, accountants, planners, scientists, technologists, doctors, lawyers and the
results of collaboration have always been far greater than in cases where individuals worked alone. And I
am sure that many of you would agree with this, not only because they have experienced it but also
because we appreciate the limited resources we have and therefore the great opportunities that
collaboration can offer.
Through collaboration we will seek to achieve interdisciplinarity and share resources. This however does
not need to occur only within the University. I see many colleagues here that would certainly agree on the
need to integrate our resources, whether human or financial in delivering study programmes, organising
events and so on. But I would like to extend this invitation also to Government and industry. In both cases
there are opportunities to share resources to the benefit of all.
Some forms of collaboration could be investment in research such as sponsoring post-graduate studies
at the Institute, seeking to professionally develop staff within your agencies by supporting post-graduate
degrees. The price for such sponsorships would be agreed between the institutions on a case by case
basis. This would allow academia and industry to successfully complete research through the University’s
expertise and contacts abroad, as well as saving the need for companies to invest in additional human
capital for research. This does not only provide industry with the outputs of the research but also potential
human resources specialised in specific areas of study.
The Institute’s objectives also extend to commercialisation and enterprise. We will seek, not only in our
study programmes that we will develop over the coming years but more importantly in our projects and
research to encourage students to commercialise their ideas. Create ventures that turn their University
experience to businesses.
I want to quickly give you some concrete examples so that you can visualise what the Institute wants to
achieve and why you are here today. Through our keynote speaker you will be able to see how
technology is applied in decision making and how Universities reach out to outsiders and attract
research. You will be able to appreciate the role of research to deliver not only human resources but also
research results. You could be looking for an answer to your business questions (where are my strongest
markets? which industrial estate is best suited for my business?) or answers to even more important
questions for economic development (where are the labour or raw material supplies and how efficient do
they arrive to the processing or distribution plants? where are the most socially excluded individuals?).
We see such opportunities for collaboration in, say for example the collection and publication of
information both collected at the University and from different agencies such as the latest release from
the National Statistics Office on Social Protection. But how powerful could that data be if apart from
looking narrowly at where the socially excluded communities are, we could also look at the environmental
factors that condition that exclusion (access to transport infrastructure, schools, employment etc). We
sometimes assume that smallness is equal to homogeneity. Well it is not and most indicators, whether of
economic, social and environmental nature differ in space, irrespective of size. So policies which are
good for one area are not good for others, similarly business decisions taken in one region of the island
might have a different outcome if applied elsewhere.
I re-iterate our wish to seek opportunities for collaboration to all here present today and more in the future
to share with us their needs, information and seek opportunities to not only to integrate efforts but also
apply them and develop tools. Among us here today are researchers, government officials, business men
that know what information they require or know the questions that need answers to. These questions are
the basis of our collaboration. How and when this could take place is really up to us.
We have shared interests. Above all, are the country’s economic development and our quality of life. We
can use this as our guiding principle and when we collaborate together, academia, university and industry
the potential for sustainability is greater. I invite you to have a look at the questionnaire in your folder and
let us know your views in this respect.
Let me now take you through the work of the Institute so far.
First we seek to collaborate with leading institutions in developing study programmes, post-graduate
research and even initiatives such as the successful summer schools in Geographic Information Systems
(GIS) that we have been running for the past two years. We are hoping to launch as from October a
Diploma in GIS as a part-time evening course. This will provide an opportunity for career development,
for the many that do not possess the qualification or have the time to follow a full-time degree
programme. With this Diploma we aim to educate and raise the expertise of the many that are already
working with GIS without prior training as well as attract employers who wish to develop this tool in their
businesses. Although we aim to have some younger students following this Diploma we hope to attract
mid-career professionals who really wish to develop their knowledge of this increasingly important
technological tool. We are very proud to have on board teaching in this Diploma programme faculty from
University College London, Kingston University’s Centre for GIS and Portsmouth University.
In extending our collaboration with other universities we will seek to expand our post-graduate
programmes and research. This will allow post-graduate researchers to collaborate with leading
institutions in the field and carry out their research locally and benefitting, through Erasmus exchange
and other funding mechanisms, from opportunities to carry out research in partner institutions overseas.
This effort will also be extended into the development of Joint Master’s Programmes with taught
components which will have recognition from two institutions.
Some other initiatives that we want to develop alongside our research efforts is the opportunity for online
publication of working papers. I’ve seen this working very successfully abroad in Prof. Batty’s Centre for
Advanced Spatial Analysis at University College London, and I believe it is a very good tool for the
Institute to publicize its research. There will be a review opportunity for researchers who wish to publish a
working paper, therefore helping them in developing the necessary skills to publish in academic journals.
Another effort which we are all very thrilled about, and some of you are already aware of this initiative
since we spoke to you about it, is the WebGIS Project. In brief this project will aim to bring together
research data and published data in one place. More on this project will be coming from the Rector
himself but also in the discussion after the break. A brief about this project is included in your packs.
Obviously we do not want to miss out on the opportunities for publishing and publicizing our efforts. This
could happen in the printed form but also in events that we plan to organise from time to time. These
events will revolve around the institute’s objectives for interdisciplinarity, application of technology and
commercialisation and enterprise. You will hopefully not just attend these events but also be participant in
their success.
Apart from the mainstream academic work, the Institute would like to extend its services to Government
and Industry. The University has a considerable human resource which could offer services for research,
monitoring, mapping and analysing data and the development of tools. Through our expertise and
research we could develop custom-made tools as well as offer services to industry where the cost of
research is offset or becomes cheaper if transferred to the University.
The Institute has been involved in the drawing up of the Malta’s Strategy for Sustainable Development.
This experience and knowledge is being made available in the set up of the new National Commission for
Sustainable Development. As well as in the new set-up for the development of a national spatial data
infrastructure, which Malta is set to establish through the Government’s IT Strategy as well as through the
INSPIRE Directive.
Last but not least we want to be able to support enterprise. We will work hand in hand with our postgraduate students but also with agencies such as Malta Enterprise to deliver not only research but
effective tools whereby our inward investment agency could market Malta’s position in a more efficient
manner. To this end we are very happy to find Malta Enterprise already willing to support us and
collaborate with us.
I now turn to the programme of events for the morning. Please note that there has been a slight change
and we have provided you with a copy of the programme in your packs, alongside a brochure about the
Institute with our details and a GEOCUBE to make, keep and explore.
Following my address, the Rector Professor Juanito Camilleri will deliver a short speech about the
Institute’s high level aims as well as some detail about the main initiatives of the Institute. After that the
Prime Minister will deliver his speech and officially launch the Institute. We will then stop for a short
coffee break where you will have the opportunity to see our undergraduate students, from Geography
working on GIS. They will be demonstrating some of the work they have been carrying out during the
past year as well as some stands from our sponsors.
Following that, Professor Michael Batty will deliver the keynote speech about his experience at bringing
together university research and real world applications. He will be obviously looking at how his Centre
for Advanced Spatial Analysis has become today a centre of excellence in the development of spatioanalytical tools for decision making. After this we will open the floor for discussion. I have prepared for
you a more visual presentation about the WebGIS project that we hope to embark upon this year and get
your feedback about any issues and concerns. The discussion will then feed into the next steps that we
take.
Following the discussion we have prepared some refreshments for you where once again you are invited
to discuss with us your views, have a look at the students working on maps and meet some of our
sponsors.
Last but not least I would like to thank our sponsors for this event – The Malta Council for Science and
Technology, the Ministry of Finance, the Economy and Investment, the Ministry for Infrastructure,
Transport and Communications, the Malta Information Technology Agency, the National Statistics Office,
the Cleaner Technology Centre, Malta Enterprise, CVA Technology and GEOSYS. I hope that after
today’s presentations these and many others will understand better our objectives and will seek to
collaborate with us. Having said that some have already offered to collaborate with us in our various
initiatives… and for that I would like to thank them.
A thanks also goes to the many that have helped in the organisation of this launch.
I now give the floor to the Rector, Prof Juanito Camilleri.
Thank you.