Mexico, a young country in the process of maturing in science, technology and innovation: ADIAT

The opportunity to be in charge of ADIAT is to express all my experience in favor of Mexico. Work on concrete examples as an element of transformation and as an optimist that I am, that the dream of a competitive Mexico be achieved based on its own intelligence, creativity and the effort of its people.”

Guillermo Aguirre Esponda, president of ADIAT

Guillermo Aguirre Esponda is the new president of the Mexican Association of Directors of Applied Research and Technological Development (ADIAT), it is the main business organization that is responsible for building bridges between industry and the science, technology and technology sector. innovation (ITC).

In an interview for El Economista, the doctor of Engineering assures that he assumes this responsibility with a perspective of a “surprising Mexico”. He explains that this country has been investing for nearly 50 years, “perhaps less than we would like, even little in science and technology, its infrastructure, its human capital”, but this has generated a very solid base of researchers, with a large number of public centers and universities that carry out research and development.

He said that this “pleasant surprise” is also given to the state structure, where some who were not considered as vanguard, stand out for the effort to push something in the region, with the models and integration of their actors. “All this is happening at a difficult historical moment, where there is no clear policy, and even in a situation of semi-abandonment by (part of) the authorities.”

In this sense, he assures that his vision and task is to activate or articulate this system for the benefit of society and especially of the youngest, that it is about seeking science-based entrepreneurship in places where it has been invested for years, and find a way to integrate all that effort. “Necessarily going through micro, medium and large companies, research centers and universities,” he details.

He adds that what ADIAT brings to this whole model is its ability to execute and the experience of its members, “making things happen”. He also refers that “Mexico is not big, yet, but we can be. This is how we want to feel, with the challenge of growing and using everything that has been sown”.

examples that inspire

Aguirre Esponda considers that Mexico is a very young country in terms of science, technology and even business, which until before World War II did not have a real ecosystem. From this period chambers, technological, polytechnic and autonomous universities are formed. Years later, a National Council of Science and Technology and a Mexican Institute of Industrial Property were created. “We are a very young scientific-technological system that is just configuring itself, achieving generations that are more articulated and aware of the subject.”

He said that one of the things that is missing in this young Mexico, but with capabilities, are examples that inspire, that leave forms of work for the CTI, “and we are working on that”, because many of the symptoms that we see today are not a lack of interest, capacity or inefficiency, but a period of growth and maturity. For example, “it has not been enough time for companies to find out about the value of intellectual property, we still do not have emblematic cases that resonate in the community.”

The academic also emphasized that we are making progress in a country that is beginning to “fill the glass”, to create spaces of convergence between the actors. For this, he said that the ADIAT community is presented as a meeting space, where universities, research centers, companies, investment funds and all the actors meet every fortnight “to discover the real Mexico.” Know what affects them, the lack or absence of support; the idea is to “get down on the field”, make links, bring universities closer to companies and not wait for it to happen, but make it happen, says Aguirre Esponda.

Lack of specialized lawyers

Another of the gaps mentioned by the ADIAT representative is the lack of lawyers on the matter. He explains that in the CTI environment we have a legal structure that works, because it gives all the actors their place, “but what we don’t have are lawyers. We have fallen short in the participation of this specialty to be able to lower the legal reality of norms and the legal framework for all these spaces where the subject is worked on”.

He said that this has a very important effect, because at the end of the day the participation of a lawyer is essential to eliminate issues of mistrust and generate agreements, a key word when we talk about technology, “because camaraderie is not enough, it has to be specified in a legal framework issues such as collectivity, cooperation, intellectual property and usufruct of the results”.

For this, what is being done is to invite young people from law schools, so that they turn to see this field, help, cooperate and this task can be done.

Mexico on a world stage, with peculiarities

Mexico is one of the economies that is most interested in the indices that measure progress in STI in the world, because we are an economy that is transforming, those that are already very established, such as Japan or the United States, are no longer new, but cases like ours, in which a dynamism is perceived, where we constantly ascend and descend places, speak of processes that are being built or eliminated.

Aguirre Esponda spoke of the experience in Conacyt when fiscal stimulus programs were articulated, which were sui generis and very established to our conditions as a country. In it, companies were invited to invest in CTI and then returned 30% of the investment in the form of tax credits. “An effect of positive envy was created, which spread to other companies. This program reached a peak in which for the first time the productive sector invested more than the federal government, an expected dream”.

According to the interviewee, in the last six years, private investment grew 13 times, there were more scientists hired in the private sector than in the public sector, there was more money from the private sector towards pure science than before, and the growth curve was exponential, with this it was thought that in about 12 years we would already have a consolidated model; With this stimulus, companies decided to bring their plants to the country, however, later the current government interpreted that this was to privilege companies.

Aguirre Esponda asks to analyze what went well and return to it, and urges the government not to leave the CTI sector alone, to provide certainty in accordance with the current changes in the country. “It is not that the government has to invest, but that it becomes the articulator of capacities and the investment can arrive.”

William Aguirre Esponda

• Passionate about innovation, science and technology, he has dedicated his entire life to the subject and has practiced it as a designer, businessman, entrepreneur, public official, teacher and student.
• Now from a private perspective, he is betting on young people and entrepreneurship. “The best bet that Mexico has in its hands are the young people and the accompaniment that we can give them.”

nelly.toche@eleconomista.mx