Speech delivered by Professor Juanito Camilleri, Rector of the University of Malta and Chairman 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 201
Prime Minister, Ministers, Ambassador, Professor Batty, distinguished guests and colleagues…
Thank you for taking time from your busy schedule to attend this launch - the launch of the Institute for
Sustainable Development.
I would like to thank Dr. Maria Attard the Director of this Institute for the energy she has radiated in the past
few months leading to this event, and for hitting the ground running with a number of sponsorships secured,
initiatives underway, and collaborations in the pipeline.
Currently, the University is very busy unfolding a strategic plan intended to strengthen its administrative and
academic capacity to participate more actively in the socio-economic development of this country in ways that
transcend the classic undergraduate teaching programmes.
The two decades prior to my rectorship saw the University grow from one with a few hundred students to one
of ten thousand; we saw the very limited range of degree programmes targeted towards the professions
expand into a vast range of subject choices and degree combinations.
Admittedly, the rapid expansion of undergraduate programmes and the sudden growth in student numbers
did stretch the resources of the University significantly and the administrative structures therein may have not
managed to cope at all times with the significant additional work-load.
In the past three and a half years, the University has embarked on ambitious projects aimed at strengthening
its administration not only to rationalise the management of its undergraduate programmes but also to build
the University’s capacity to conduct research at postgraduate, doctoral and postdoctoral level and moreover
we are in the process of building our capacity to work more effectively with Government, industry and civil
society at large.
On the international front, the University has been forging strategic partnerships with counterparts in Europe,
the Mediterranean, the United States, and the Far East. In particular, we have launched and are in the
process of launching a number of dual and joint international masters programmes in a range of disciplines.
Indeed, we have started to transform the upper-floor of this very building into an international graduate school
to host such programmes.
The launch of the Institute for Sustainable Development is yet another cog in the engine of change we are
forging. The Institute will no doubt reach out to a number of local stakeholders which I believe will in time
benefit from its expertise and services. Moreover, the Institute will reach out beyond our shores to strike
strategic partnerships with international counterparts. Professor Batty’s presence here today confirms our
interest to explore concrete ways of working closely with University College London (UCL) to build an
international perspective into the institute from its onset.
In the next few years we intend to build this Institute on two main pillars:
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First, this Institute is intended to host, augment and aggregate interdisciplinary research and to create
cognitive tools to support the formulation and realisation of national plans ultimately intended to improve the
quality of life in Malta.
Second, based on the belief that the Sustainable Development of a knowledge-based economy and society is
intrinsically rooted in the ability to leverage creativity and entrepreneurship to create value, this Institute will
act as an incubator on campus that promotes and catalyses the commercialisation of knowledge and
knowhow.
These two main pillars of the Institute may sound generic and high-flown. This said, they will be anchored in
two very concrete initiatives.
First, building on the experience and expertise accrued at the University in the field of Geographic Information
Systems, we intend to encourage and support students, researchers and academics who are studying
aspects of Maltese demographics, geography and environment to map their findings digitally in a central GIS
repository. Every year, there are various studies which take place which many-a-time remain obscure or
inaccessible simply because the data is not adequately presented, or the findings are not circulated
appropriately. Today we have web tools that allow us to develop accessible online databases where users
can interact with data and produce their own maps.
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and indeed these days, the ability to project multiple
demographic and other data sets in various layers on a common digital base-map allows one to gain valuable
insights at a glance, let alone apply spatial analytical tools which are increasingly becoming important
elements of research and are supporting strategic decisions.
For example, a criminology student may map crime hotpots on the Maltese Islands, an educationalist may
trace the main sources for truancy, a sociologist may identify the hotspots for unemployment, a nutritionist
may have identified the main spots for malnutrition and obesity in children, a tourism studies student may
map the location of all entertainment outlets by category, an environmentalist may map air-quality in different
zones, a healthcare student may map asthma hotspots… and let’s not even start with the spatial data which
is collected every year by geography students… the list of possibilities is endless… but though these studies
may be conducted independently of each other… and though most may appear prima face to be unrelated,
once brought together on a common base-map of the Maltese islands… one may start gaining valuable
insights on the correlation of some phenomenon with others… or of the change in demographic spread of
certain phenomena over time particularly as a measure of the impact of certain policy decisions or events.
Needless to say, the value of such a Databank will be augmented significantly if the University continues to
work closely with government agencies, the civil service, civil society, and industry to enrich the range of such
datasets particularly if these include the location of a broad range of resources such as - schools, banks,
churches, shops, museums, restaurants, bus-stops, clinics, police stations, band clubs, restaurants, one-way
streets, vineyards, soil type and quality, prevailing winds, ground-water repositories, street lighting, outdoor
Wi-Fi hotspots, waste separation stations, pharmacies, old-people’s homes etc…
In short, aggregating such information on a common GIS platform can be a valuable national resource which
on the one hand can act as a planning, research and monitoring tool, and on the other can be a source of
inspiration for creativity and intelligence for new ventures.
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This leads me to the second pillar of the Institute. I have asked Dr. Ing. Saviour Zammit to design and help
create a post-graduate programme intended to groom graduates who are interested in participating in the
setting up of new business ventures in a tutored framework that supports business start-ups. In pursuit of this
post-graduate qualification, it is envisaged that candidates are groomed to create the groundwork towards the
launch of live businesses.
It is envisaged that, given a specific service or product concept, students on this course will be assigned the
task:
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to define and develop the product or service,
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to conduct market research and research on relevant regulatory or legal constraints,
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to create the right brand and to develop a marketing strategy,
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to devise a business plan with appropriate risk analysis, and
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to devise a strategy to raise financing.
All this will take place in a tutored setting where the tutors act as “advisors” or “consultants” to the business
venture. The ultimate goal would be to secure the necessary capital to launch successful businesses, or if the
original prospects are deemed unfeasible, to identify the reasons why the venture is abandoned.
Amongst others, the Masters programme would help in the commercialization of ideas and innovation
emerging from within the University and would engage students in feasibility studies and business plan
formulation with an eye to becoming future stakeholders in new business ventures or product lines.
We are particularly interested, in exploring the possibility of launching this masters programme as a local
counterpart or variant in a dual programme with another University. Indeed, amongst others, we have been
looking closely at the MSc Programme in Technology Entrepreneurship offered by UCL, and the MSc
Programme in Science and Technology Commercialization offered by the IC2 of the University of Texas at
Austin.
I am very excited about the prospects for this Institute and I hope that the work we are about to embark upon
will bring the University closer to industry, will increase the profile of the University in international fora, but
most important of all, make the University of Malta more relevant to the socio-economic development of our
country.
I would like to close off here by taking this opportunity to thank the sponsors of this event. Finally, a word of
thanks to Professor Batty, for accepting to be here with us today.
Thank you all.
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