The “Mission of Wise Men”

The “Mission of Wise Men” was an initiative convened by the National Government of Colombia to "contribute to the construction and implementation of the public policy of Education, Science, Technology and Innovation and to the strategies that Colombia must build in the long term, to respond to productive and social challenges in a scalable, replicable and sustainable way". (^{Gobierno de Colombia, 2019a}). For this purpose, 47 national and international specialists were summoned from various professional disciplines that defined the strategic foci for the accelerated development of science, technology and innovation (STI) in the country. The strategic foci defined are:

One of the documents of the “Mission of Wise Men” state that there are at least three aspects in which the current world is different from that of 1994 (^{Gobierno de Colombia, 2019b}). The first one is the accelerated progress of different technologies (digitization, biology and advanced materials). The advancement of the internet broadband and connectivity through internet of things has reconfigured numerous value chains and enabled the creation of businesses on platforms. The possibilities of converging technologies to solve problems and create economic and social value are enormous. The second one is the growing evidence of the impacts of climate change and the urgency of a circular economy approach to models that align value creation with the reduction of the effects of increased urban water and air pollution. The third is the pressure to discover new forms of expression and participation of citizens. Science, technology, creative and cultural industries and reflection of the social sciences can help citizens to develop their ability to imagine their society and their role in it.

According to the Mission (^{Gobierno de Colombia, 2019b}; ^{Colciencias, 2019}), 80% of Colombian exports in 2018 come from mining, which means that our economy is little diversified and has low complexity. There is great potential for the development of a manufacturing industry with higher value-added products. The Mission highlights the country's dependence on economic development, due to deficiencies in basic knowledge. To generate wealth, it is necessary to have own skills in basic sciences and scientific productivity. In order to overcome these shortcomings, the Mission presents four proposals which are briefly described below.

Proposals by the “Mission of Wise Men”

The “Mission of Wise Men” formulate four cross-cutting proposals related to the institutional framework, funding, education and, missions or centers.

Institutions of the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation- SNCTI

The Mission (^{Colciencias, 2019}) identified structural deficiencies in the National System of Science, Technology and Innovation (SNCTI) and suggests three basic principles to overcome them:

Financing

Some of the documents produced by the Mission (^{Gobierno de Colombia, 2019b}; ^{Colciencias, 2019}) state that the goal of investment in STI is to increase the productivity of the economy, environmental sustainability and social progress through better products, services and creative activities. The Mission suggests orienting the state public funding by defining priorities as follows:

Besides, some criticism is presented about the schemes used for incentives, to which five types are recommended (^{Gobierno de Colombia, 2019b}):

The “Mission of Wise Men” (^{Gobierno de Colombia, 2019b}): believes that the State should lead and responsible for starting and supporting the presented proposals. Two phases were envisaged to achieve these purposes:

The Mission (^{Gobierno de Colombia, 2019b}; ^{Colciencias, 2019}) also suggests changing the percentage of royalty resources allocated to STI from 10% to 25%, through a constitutional reform. Those resources would be devoted to integral education for children under 5 years of age, funding of regional research and innovation centers and institutes, and challenge and mission programmes. Additionally, the “Mission of Wise Men” deems it necessary to obtain international loans in an estimated amount of $300 million dollars for the next four years (until 2024).

Education

Education is an essential factor in the transformation of societies and human development. The “Mission of Wise Men” (^{Gobierno de Colombia, 2019b}; ^{Colciencias, 2019}) highlights the role of education, particularly in the context of an accelerated technological change. Education must advance in aspects such as new pedagogies, universalization of access, quality of education, nutrition, health, affection and other components of comprehensive assistance for children aged from 0 to 5 years, as well as in the diversification and universalization of secondary education.

The Mission (^{Gobierno de Colombia, 2019b}) presents several proposals in relation to education:

Missions and Centers

In order to avoid the currently disperse use of funds, the “Mission of Wise Men” suggests missions and centers as a strategy. In this sense, the Mission (^{Gobierno de Colombia, 2019b}; ^{Colciencias, 2019}) made important efforts to define three major challenges:

Role of Engineering

The question we want to ask to Engineering professionals in Colombia is: What is the role of Engineering in the framework presented by the current “Mission of Wise Men”?

There are several opportunities to participate in the scenario proposed by the “Mission of Wise Men”. A short list that is far from being the most complete is the following:

With regard to scientific publications, the Mission makes no explicit mention of their role in the general guidelines of its proposals. However, scientific publications are indeed benchmark for justifying those proposals and emerge as indicators for reviewing and as targets to be achieved in the future. An increase is suggested in the quantity and quality of publications. Regarding the number of publications, it is understood that the more it is published, the more likely it is to make contributions that translate into new knowledge, developments or innovations. With regard to the quality of publications, the documents of the Mission reiteratively mention indexation in internationally traceable scientific databases and the number of citations received by the publications. In this sense, we present the following reflections to the readers:

We respectfully invite readers to read the documents presented by the Mission, to share them and discuss them in their institutions, and to reflect upon the best possible way to participate and contribute in this national landscape.