Extrapolating Strategies for the Scientific and Technological Development of Underdeveloped Societies from the Examples of South Korea, Slovenia and Serbia

Abstract

The recent history of scientific excellence of a society could be used as an indicator of its economic, cultural and communal prosperity. In this work, two examples of countries that successfully arose from the remnants of comparative poverty and established themselves as scientifically
thriving societies, South Korea and Slovenia, are compared with the case of Serbia, a country that is presumably on the doorsteps of a similarly explosive developmental path. Guidelines for social progress in the direction of greater scientific and social prominence are outlined in the course
of the discourse. It is concluded that the ideal model of growth is to be based on parallel progress on the plane of R&D policies and on the level of excellence of scientific and basic education. The 'leapfrog' approach which dictates that the less developed countries should learn from
the mistakes committed by the developed ones and thus accelerate their progress and catch up with the latter is invoked as an essential systemic strategy to be adopted. Incorporation into global scientific network of cooperation is also outlined as a necessity as much as stable and thriving
local scientific and technological bases that would make up for prolific grounds for an efficient transfer and implementation of knowledge.

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Extrapolating Strategies for the Scientific and Technological
Development of Underdeveloped Societies from the Examples of South
Korea, Slovenia and Serbia
Vuk Uskoković1, Dragan P. Uskoković2
1 University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
2 Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia
Abstract
The recent history of scientific excellence of a society could be used as an
indicator of its economic, cultural and communal prosperity. In this work, two examples
of countries that successfully arose from the remnants of comparative poverty and
established themselves as scientifically thriving societies, South Korea and Slovenia, are
compared with the case of Serbia, a country that is presumably on the doorsteps of a
similarly explosive developmental path. Guidelines for social progress in the direction of
greater scientific and social prominence are outlined in the course of the discourse. It is
concluded that the ideal model of growth is to be based on parallel progress on the plane
of R&D policies and on the level of excellence of scientific and basic education. The
“leapfrog” approach which dictates that the less developed countries should learn from
the mistakes committed by the developed ones and thus accelerate their progress and
catch up with the latter is invoked as an essential systemic strategy to be adopted.
Incorporation into global scientific network of cooperation is also outlined as a necessity
as much as stable and thriving local scientific and technological bases that would make
up for prolific grounds for an efficient transfer and implementation of knowledge.
Introduction
“There is something within me that might be illusion
as it is often case with young delighted people, but if
I would be fortunate to achieve some of my ideals, it
would be on the behalf of the whole of humanity. If
those hopes would become fulfilled, the most
exciting thought would be that it is a deed of a Serb”
Nikola Tesla, Address at the Belgrade Train Station
June 1, 1892
The recent history of scientific excellence of a society could be used as an
indicator of its economic, cultural and communal prosperity. In his keynote address to the
US National Academy of Sciences on April 28, 2009, The US President, Barrack Obama
said that “science is more essential to our prosperity, our security, our health, our
environment and our quality of life than it has ever been before”1. As an illustration of
this presupposed direct proportionality between scientific excellence and social
prosperity, Fig.1 shows a continual rise in the science and engineering occupation share
of total civilian employment in the US. On the other hand, we seem to live in a world in

which inequalities and ill distribution of wealth present some of the crucial social factors
of its instability and non-sustainability. To illustrate this, Fig.2 demonstrates a disparity
between rich and poor countries of the world in terms of many parameters, including the
share in world Gross Domestic Product (GDP), export of goods and services, foreign
direct investments, and the number of Internet users. Thus, in early 2011 the World
Heritage Committee officially recognized the gap between rich and poor as the “Eighth
Wonder of the World”, describing the global wealth divide as the “most colossal and
enduring of mankind’s creations”. Yet, globalized science of the modern day is a great
invitation for cooperation between the rich and the poor. Since the latter stands for one of
the most adverse effects that threaten the sustainability of our civilization, equilibration
of technological prospects all across the planet can be seen as a vital aim in front of the
current generation of scientists. The aim of this paper is to provide insights on factors that
could be manipulated with in scientific and social management that ameliorates the
problem of pervasive social inequalities and establishes grounds for a lasting and locally
supportive scientific productivity within less developed regions and countries of the
world. Correspondingly, two cases of advantageous scientific management, i.e., of South
Korea and Slovenia, will be presented with the aim of finding the principles that would
assist us in outlining the convenient policies and directions of progress for the developing
countries, a single example of which is taken to be Serbia.
Fig.1. Science and engineering occupation share of total civilian employment in the US
in 1983, 1993, and 2002. Source: Science & Engineering Indicators – 2004, National
Science Foundation of the US.

Fig.2. The disparity between rich and poor countries of the world in terms of the share in
world GDP, exports of goods and services, foreign direct investments, and the number of
Internet users. Source: United Nations Development Program, Human Development
Report 1999.
The example of South Korea
South Korea gives an outstanding example of how only a few decades of wise
scientific management and creative labor can be sufficient to elevate a society from
relative poverty to global prominence2. After it had explosively reached an exceptional
level of industrial and technological development in the 1960s, South Korea decided to
heavily contribute to scientific research of both applied and fundamental origins, which
eventually paid off. As such, the country can be said to have lived up to the starting
hypothesis of this discourse, which is that not a single country succeeded in creating a
truly prominent and prospective society and culture without investing in scientific R&D.
Among other steps that have contributed to the subsequent impressive expansion of
productive academic and industrial R&D in South Korea, the following ones were taken.
In 1967, a special governmental agency with the purpose of attracting outstanding
Korean scientists from abroad was formed which resulted in an influx of foreign-
educated researchers and lecturers to South Korean universities as faculty members.
Exceptional employment opportunities were provided for academic degree holders,
which served as a powerful attractor of young people to higher educational institutions:
more than 80 % of high-school graduates currently decide to enroll in one of the
universities. What is more, the merits of graduate education were emphasized in response
to an increased demand for skilled scientists from private industrial sectors, which

resulted in enhanced research capabilities at the academic level as well. In order to
address the problems of low funding of graduate students, the Ministry of Education
launched the “Brain Korea 21“ program in 1999, which provided monthly salaries to
graduate students3. One of the mechanisms to attract students to graduate studies was
carried out in concert with the efforts from the Ministry of Defense, which assisted by
waiving the otherwise compulsory military duty for all students admitted to any of the
graduate schools. This approach highlights the necessity of the cooperative action of
several non-associated governmental sectors in implementing a comprehensive plan for
scientific development in reality.
However, each progressive run leaves a set of undesired side effects behind itself,
which provide opportunities for further research and growth, and South Korean scientific
society has not been an exception to this rule by any means. One of them belongs to
strong incentives to publish in order to secure stable academic positions, so that the sheer
number of scientific publications is often more valued than their quality and impact.
Thereupon, the scientists usually do not hesitate to publish their works prematurely and
the citation frequency of South Korean researchers consequently does not possess a level
as high as the number of publications in comparison with other scientific powers of the
world. On the other hand, a recent study has shown that among exceptionally cited
authors, South Korea still holds the world share of 31.5 percent, occupying second place,
right after the US with 37.6 percent and ahead of the UK with 13.0 percent at the third
position4. In defense of rapid publishing, however, it can be argued that science develops
incrementally and that the timely feedback from scientific society is an important driving
force for successful research. It is, therefore, essential to find the right time to publish,
and thus avoid both premature announcements of the attained results and retardation of
the progress of the field by their prolonged concealment. In order to succeed in that, one
is apparently obliged to moderate an attitude that fosters competitiveness between
individual research groups by seeing scientific achievements as products of the scientific
society and human race as a whole. After all, the very fact that each scientific paper cites
other people’s works implicitly highlights the influence of other ideas on the author’s
achievements5, implying that the boundary between those who deserve the credit for the
given discoveries and those who will be put aside will always be arbitrarily drawn6.
The disparity between quantity and quality seems to be a common fate of any
evaluation of progress. However, many questions could be raised regarding the validity
of single-parameter models, which are intensively used to day and yet hardly provide a
good basis for estimating the quality of the evaluated patterns of growth. In that sense,
International Scientific Institute (ISI) impact factors, Hirsch and other citation indices,
market indices or GDP can be said to present unreliable indicators of quality per se7,8. In
order to improve their reliability, these parameters should be incorporated into multi-
parametric relationships and models of eventually higher complexity. The weakness of
using GDP as an indicator of economic wellbeing is reflected in the fact that it does not
account for non-market outputs; neglects the preexisting wealth; includes some negative
contributions, such as military expenditures and projects that result in environmental
deterioration; and, finally, takes no account of social inequality9. “Trying to run a
complex society on a single indicator… is like trying to fly a 747 with only one gauge on
the instrument panel”10, says the evolutionary economist, Hazel Henderson, in this
context. Still, eliminating the disparity between quantitative and qualitative insights,

which currently could be attributed to every type of progress assessment, presents an
incessant challenge for the future science analysts and policy makers11,12.
Another presumably unfavorable consequence of the South Korean scientific
progress has been placing too much emphasis on applied research and too little on the
fundamental. The extent of Korean emphasis on industrial research may be best
illustrated by the fact that patenting of scientific inventions is so intensively encouraged
that South Korea currently holds No. 1 spot in the world in terms of the number of
patents per GDP13. On the other hand, only 10 % of all grant applications in basic
sciences are approved, with the overall spending also at around 10 % of the total
government R&D budget. Furthermore, the government share in research investments is
25 %, which lowers the overall basic research funds to 2.5 % of the total. In view of this,
one should be reminded that the most important advents in the history of science,
including the major discoveries of quantum mechanics, theory of relativity and molecular
biology in the 20th century, were derived neither from market needs, external demands
nor preconceived techno-scientific objectives. In fact, it has recently been argued that
most of the major scientific breakthroughs in the history of science have evolved from
very little or even no funding at all14. Although universities are nowadays increasingly
under pressure to make ascertain that their research outputs could be commercialized and
although research projects with a higher chance of commercialization are often openly
preferred in the funding selection processes, too much focus on creating spin-offs without
a careful prior analysis of their true potentials could be detrimental for the overall
research quality15. As Nobel Laureate Leon M. Lederman claimed, “Investments in
abstract scientific research, which in industrial societies deduct less that one percent of
the budget, pay off much more than any type of asset on Dow Jones market index.
Despite that, some baffled politicians occasionally terrorize us by wanting that all science
serves only the immediate needs of the society…they have forgotten that the majority of
great advancements in technology came from pure, fundamental research, whose main
driving force was, simply, curiosity. Amen”16. Furthermore, as fundamental research
could be considered as the substratum of the applied one, the results of the former often
lead to unpredictable ways of utilizing them in various functional devices. The case of
quantum mechanics, which was decades after its invention first used in the design of
semiconductors and other microelectronic components, offers one such example, while it
similarly took decades before the discoveries of molecular biology could be applied for
various biotechnological purposes. In fact, the dependence of scientists on non-
governmental investments is a relatively new phenomenon. Individual academic
researchers were in most respects free from external directions until the beginning of
1970s. Yet, it is worth noting that a trend of continual increase in R&D investments
coinciding with the continual decrease in global per capita economic growth for the past
30 years has occurred afterwards17.
Communication between departments within a single South Korean research
institution is typically low, and they mostly function in isolation from each other, which
is said to present an obstacle for multidisciplinary research efforts. In this context, one
should be reminded that one of the major reasons behind the successful research activity
of Rockefeller University - recently announced as the institution from which the largest
number of major scientific breakthroughs have originated18 - lies in the fact that it is not
divided to individual departments, especially for the sake of promoting a fruitful

multidisciplinary communication. The lack of technical and administrative support is
another consequent problem in South Korean scientific organizations, which often leaves
scientist alone in attempts to solve them. Doing research in isolation could be convenient
while it increases the capabilities for specialized research, but becomes detrimental when
complementary knowledge is required to solve the problems faced by single know-how
perspectives.
The example of Slovenia
Slovenia is a member of European Union (EU) with one of the most impressive
combinations of GDP, life standard, economic prosperity and scientific productivity. Its
current growth rate in technological performance is above the EU average and it is the
only accession country that spent more than 1.5 % of its GDP on research and
development in 2001 as well as the only one that produced more than 415 publications
per million inhabitants19. It used to be a republic of the former Yugoslavia, which it
seceded from in 1991, and despite the fact that the shrinkage of the local market that
followed the collapse of Yugoslav constitution forced many industries to undergo
restructuring, downsizing or even bankruptcy, thereby diminishing or even completely
eliminating the opportunities for industrial research, proper revitalization incentives from
the government level and an openness of academic research to cooperation with industry
enabled an ascending trend in many R&D aspects.
In Slovenia, the promotion of academic research links with various national and
international industries has been seen as the most important incentive for scientific
productivity and technological success20. To exemplify the latter, a single department
within Jožef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana, the Department of Advanced Materials, with
less than 20 employees, has maintained a persistent cooperation with a dozen of different
national and international industries in the past decade. Among business corporations,
smart innovation policies resulted in making the public company Gorenje become one of
the eight largest European manufacturers of white goods with a 4 % share of the
European market in 2006. In 2004, as part of the efforts to extend its links to R&D
domain, it contributed as one of the industrial cofounders of Jožef Stefan International
Postgraduate School. In as early as 1985, with the support from governmental and
academic institutions Slovenia launched the “2000 young researchers” program aimed to
promote postgraduate studies in science and engineering and form a thriving research
basis that would satisfy both academic and industrial needs. Furthermore, to improve the
ratio of industrial versus academic doctoral degrees (only 20 % in 1995), the Ministry of
Science and Technology decided in 1995 to subsidize the salaries for the first three years
of newly employed scientists with master and doctoral degrees in industrial research
departments. Other legislative incentives, including the law on supporting business
enterprises in technological development, were delivered with the purpose of increasing
the employment of R&D personnel and strengthen their research potentials. Assuming
that public knowledge institutions are usually not the main source of successful
innovations, Centers of Excellence were established at major academic research
institutions aiming to integrate basic research with the stages of prototyping, testing and
production in selected cooperating companies. Centers like this were imagined to possess
a role similar to the one that Japan’s largest public research organization, the National

Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, has in constructing the bridges
that promote transition of research accomplishments to the market. As a consequence of
its highly interdisciplinary nature that involves the aspects of administrative support,
financial and human resources, networking partners for commercialization and
manufacturing, in-depth market analysis, evaluation of the safety standards and quality
assessment, this bridge is often named a “nightmare phase” or a “valley of death”21,22 that
need to be successfully crossed in order for R&D creations to be brought into social,
economic and ecological daylight.
However, despite the traditionally developed international and regional scientific
cooperation and relationships, Slovenia comprises a comparatively small gross scientific
network. Even though it is currently involved in more than a thousand bilateral scientific
projects, a small number of Slovenian project coordinators is often quoted as a sign of
incapacity to support the development of this solid networked basis for cooperation. It is
worth noting that Slovenia protected its national and cultural identity throughout the
previous centuries due to preservation of politically humble and self-contained attitudes
with respect to their neighbors. The extent to which Slovenia succeeded in this is best
illustrated by the fact that Slovene is nowadays the only Slavic language in addition to
Sorbian that still comprises the dual grammatical number of Proto-Indo-European, even
though it has been surrounded by three different linguistic families. However, the
questions on future prospects of the impressive economic growth of Slovenia – so far still
provided more by large infrastructural investments and less by the targeted development
of “knowledge-based” products - are often raised in view of more open scientific, social
and immigration policies adopted by the majority of other EU countries. Due to its small
size, decisions to rely on its own resources alone would hardly be able to lead to
sustainable, sufficiently prominent and internationally competitive research
organizations. Small market size also naturally limits the efficiency of translation of
research findings into the commercial domain. With only 2 million citizens, Slovenia
comprises a small corresponding number of researchers, and as much as the small size of
Slovenian research and innovation system could be potentially reflected in uncomplicated
and smooth collaboration among scientists and engineers, when it comes to evaluation of
research proposals, the demerits of such a small community in which grant approvals
could become based on social and scientific prominence rather than on true research
capabilities appear as obvious. It is only during the past three years that the practice of an
international review of scientific project proposals has been noticed. By promoting
conditions for an unbiased competition for research funds, a more efficient expenditure of
public funds could be expected. In view of the fact that public tax money has traditionally
financed research institutions and still does in large extent, it is necessary to provide the
public with possibilities to get acquainted with scientific conduct and key achievements,
similar to the function that Japan’s RIKEN research organization, old for almost a
century, has in increasing public awareness of social phenomena by organizing public
lectures, open houses and promoting free newsletters23. However, as with all the
developing countries in general, one of the central issues that seriously constrain the
development rate is the poor implementation of legislative policies. In Slovenia, as a
consequence of the comprehensive legislative paperwork done prior to joining the EU,
many policies exist “on paper” with the purpose of accelerating the growth of R&D

sectors, but their implementation is lagging behind, and evaluations of the effects of
different policies are rarely undertaken24.
Sets of strategies for the scientific and technological development of underdeveloped
societies
The developing countries should ideally rely on the so-called “leapfrog” strategy
in their approach to reach the level of development of rich countries. Accordingly, the
underdeveloped countries are invited to learn from the natural cycle of alternating
progressions and regressions inevitably present during the growth of a developed country.
According to the classical Schumpeter’s theory of creative destruction, “the fundamental
impulse that sets and keeps the capitalist engine in motion comes from the new
consumers’ goods, the new methods of production or transportation, the new markets, [a
process that] incessantly revolutionizes the economic structure from within, incessantly
destroying the old one, incessantly creating a new one”25, and it is exactly this unending
need to constantly embrace new innovations and discard the obsolete methods that slows
down the progressive path of the leaders and gives a chance to the followers to eventually
reach the same level of development26.
Henceforth, instead of going through the same mistakes that the developed
countries have committed, the developing countries would be able to transcend these
threats by implementing the right solutions thereto even before they appear imminent in
the systems of their own. For example, instead of repeating the same flaws of ecological
recklessness that have occurred in the developed world27, the less developed countries
could timely apply the policies for their prevention, far before the ecological problems
become evident locally. It has already been suggested that as technological and scientific
development follows a similar sinusoidal path driven by the stages of conception,
expectation, hype, saturation, over-hype and backlash, the ability to predict rises and
surges of interests in a given idea or technology is crucial in learning how to smoothly
ride on these waves28. The “leapfrog” tactics in general presents a convenient mechanism
for the gradual bridging of large gaps in prosperity that exist between the developed and
the underdeveloped societies. In addition, this gap is considered as one of the brakes of
an efficient and prosperous globalization in terms of preventing the possibilities for a
convenient transfer of know-how and technologies. Implementing policies for its
remission is, therefore, crucial for the sustainability of humanity.
Hence, the countries in the developing stages should be fostered to follow the past
and current steps of the developed world, and yet to be active and ready to implement
actions to prevent their mistakes in due time. Based on economic predispositions and
cultural and geographical background, each society requires a unique organization
thereof, whilst at the same time a certain level of similarity of the patterns of growth is to
be expected among individual societies. However, as of today, the developing countries
rarely adopt this strategy. Namely, they either choose to be passive followers of the world
leaders and thus in extreme cases become inert slaves of the foreign capital, or decide to
isolate themselves from the rest of the world and enforce obsolete and overly centralized
ways of social management.
Furthermore, it is an old cliché that teaching people the art of fishing instead of
merely handing them the fish that can last only for a few meals is the correct approach to

helping an impoverished society. In such a way, sustained social welfare is fostered
instead of passive servitude. Hence, the ideas that one helps a society by indirectly
sending charities and aids thereto should cede its place to an approach permeated with
greater amounts of direct and productive communication that provides eligible education
for the underdeveloped ones. Similarly, instead of investing in tops of the frequently
corrupt governments of the poor countries, the attitude of providing a high-quality
education and a fertile ground for the locally sustained economic growth should become
more pervasive.
Consequently, the correct pathways of development occur at the intersection of
two progressive directions: top-down and bottom-up. Whereas the former corresponds to
the management of social relationships by means of convenient policies brought about
from centralized hierarchical levels, the latter belongs to improvements of the society at
its fundamental organizational levels, including the provision of educational opportunities
and the generation of productive academic and industrial bases upon which scientific
research and its results would find a fertile ground.
Good education has been many times evidenced as the general basis of social
prosperity. When a society is permeated with high-quality education (which includes not
only professional trainings, but general knowledge, ethical teaching and upbringing in
childhood as well) it can live on through the hard times without reaching the states of
civil anarchy, tyranny and corruption. In accordance with the circular causal nature of
physical phenomena in general29, the attempts to improve the rate of development of a
given society in politically hierarchical, ‘top-down’ fashion become at certain point
encountered with puzzling circular causal chains in which each cause presents an effect
and vice versa. It can be, thus, noted that in order for the problem of planetary poverty
and famine to be solved, stable political and security bases should be set, for which good
educational foundations are required, for which the solution of existential poverty
becomes the necessary precondition30. Or, as a Roma who appeared on a Serbian TV one
day wittily noticed, “Gypsies are poor because they do not go to school, and they do not
go to school because they are poor and nobody expects them to go to school, which
makes it a vicious circle of a kind”. Hence, “there is no formula for social and cultural
change; puzzling out which came first resembles the problem of chicken and egg”31, as
the environmental activist, Brian Tokar, pointed out.
The true meaning of the grassroots concept corresponds to idea that the social and
scientific prosperity has to be built from its foundations. The essence of grassroots
approach is connected to bottom-up incentives and design and since ecological
movement bloomed owing to grassroots approach, so should we be sure that creative
people in developing countries should be encouraged to get involved locally and devise
steps towards more sustainable society rather than wait for top-down, legislative
incentives. Sustainable organization of the society on the basis of ecological principles
and deep ethical engagements on the professional plan should, therefore, present an all-
pervasive support of social creations.
Applied research is, as the name itself suggests, most productive when it is carried
out on the basis of already established infrastructural and industrial prosperity. The first
stage in the example of South Korean development corresponded to technological and
industrial improvements. Only then were the steps to increase the scientific productivity
made. On the other hand, the success of fundamental research is nowadays similarly

inextricably dependent on expensive, high-tech equipment, such as high-resolution
electron microscopes, complex telescopes, spectral analyzers, etc. Even though a general
consequence of the post-World-War-II division to abundant funding of research in the
European West and poor funding in the European East has predisposed the former to
become more skillful with experimental techniques and the latter to focus more on
developing strong theoretical capabilities32, comprehensive theoretical research
nowadays frequently requires expensive computational settings. This is, however, not to
say that there is no hope for basic research in less developed countries. Quite contrary,
the recent breakthroughs in simple and yet extraordinarily efficient synthetic methods
based on self-assembly and soft chemistry provide the opportunities for competition of
low-cost experimental setups with expensive lithographic techniques, at least when the
aspect of synthesis is concerned33,34. These unlimited potentials of simple and eco-
efficient synthetic procedures present the reason why the Nobel Laureate, George M.
Whitesides recently proclaimed that “we are at a wonderful time for chemistry; it is, I
believe, in the position of physics in the 1910s, just before quantum mechanics made the
world impossibly strange, or biology in the 1950s, just before the double helix obliterated
the old biology”35.
To sum up, the only sustainable way to initiate the formation of a successful and
productive society lies in the coalescence of smart policies that descend down to society
from the top levels of governmental regulations and the promotion of valuable education
and professional training that extend from the level of individuals towards society. Only
the approach of preserving the cultural basis of the society as much as fostering an
openness to information exchange with the rest of the world could be accepted as a
correct one in the context of a harmonious globalization. Either the openness to external
influences that would erase the invaluable cultural background of the society or the
closeness to international communication driven by fears that the national heritage would
be deprived thereafter, both present wrong and unbalanced approaches. Yet, as of today,
it seems as if the developing countries and particularly those in transition to free market
economies are rarely ready to adopt this strategy of balanced openness and closeness.
They either decide to be overly open by choosing to be passive followers and imitators of
the developed world, which in extreme cases predisposes them to become slaves of the
foreign capital, or decide to isolate themselves from the rest of the world and enforce
obsolete and overly centralized ways of social management.
The synergistic and balancing attitude expounded herein is consistent with both
the nature of perception and biological constitution of human beings36,37,38,39. Firstly, the
construction of experience proceeds from within the human brain as much as it becomes
“drawn” on the basis of the sensual detection of the physical features of the surrounding
world. Secondly, biological creatures comprise an inherent balance between operational
closeness and thermodynamic openness. Whereas the former contributes to inability to
manipulate therewith in the sense that all decisions are eventually brought about from
internal sources, the latter accounts for the exchange of matter and energy in which the
living creatures need to be constantly engaged in order to maintain their physical
structures.
The example of Serbia

In comparison with South Korea that has continuously raised its scientific and
technological performance in the past few decades, Serbia illustrates a country that lived
through the opposite path. As the largest republic of the former Yugoslavia, Serbia was
involved in the Yugoslav phenomenon of being an excellent bridge for the scientific
communication between East and West. Neutral with respect to the Cold War, it used to
be one of those rare places in which open-minded American and Russian scientists could
meet before the fall of the Iron Curtain to exchange scientific ideas. For example, in the
period between 1969 and 1989, Yugoslavia was the permanent host country of Round
Table meetings on Sintering, later renamed to World Conferences on Sintering, organized
by the International Institute for the Science of Sintering40,41. As a founder of the largest
union of third-world countries, it also provided possibilities for their successful
integration into the promises of the developed world. The Yugoslav system of self-
management, designed to bridge the extreme communist and capitalist economies which
belonged to the East and the West, respectively, was celebrated all over the world42.
American experts at the time acknowledged Yugoslav scientists as their most prominent
partners in addition to Israeli researchers, while the Yugoslav passport was considered
the most expensive one on the black market. However, although it used to be quoted as
one of the most original and prospective political systems that the world curiously kept an
eye on, it collapsed because of the corruptive influence that the state, the Communist
Party and its Central Committee and the labor unions that oversaw the functioning of the
workers’ councils exerted on the latter. The subsequent breakup that had begun in 1991
with military conflicts, altogether with the persistence of an obsolete and corrupt
government despite the innumerable protests of students and members of the intellectual
elite, slumped the Serbian life standard straight to the bottom of Europe’s ranking.
One of the many positive aspects of Serbian science is comparatively strong and
comprehensive education. However, an over-extensive education takes its toll as well.
For example, the annual transience rate at the Faculty of Physical Chemistry, one of the
most prestigious colleges at Belgrade University has been as low as 10 %, whereas the
average duration of studies is at 8 years almost twice longer than the anticipated 4.5
years. The educational system is also blamed for its lack of flexibility, as most colleges
pursue only general study programs, without offering options to start the specialization in
certain fields at an early undergraduate stage. The recent adoption of the study
management in accordance with the Bologna declaration is expected to increase
flexibility and diversity of the teaching system. However, despite having been enacted a
few years ago, the Bologna declaration targets the transience rate of 80 %, and yet at the
University of Belgrade as a whole, it is currently as low as 16 %. In general, only 25 % of
high-school graduates enroll in one of the colleges in Serbia, whereby 70 % of the
admitted subsequently drop out.
Another major demerit of the college education is that it proceeds in an almost
complete isolation from the scientific and technological needs of the society. Non-
accommodation of the study programs to the actual labor market as a result leaves 95 %
of fresh graduates unable to find a job without an additional training. Furthermore, there
is a consequent disparity between close to a million of unemployed persons and about
50,000 permanently open positions due to a lacking in appropriate qualifications and
skills43. In Slovenia, for comparison, all students are, prior to graduation, obliged to
spend at least six months at one of the external research institutions while being actively

engaged on the ongoing projects. In many other countries, students are instigated to get
involved in research at an early undergraduate stage. However, whereas in Slovenia the
students are usually refused an authorship on the resulting publications, in the US, for
example, undergraduate students are normally granted the same right, which provides
even more incentives for the development of their research skills and interests.
Science is an adventure of human mind, and unless the students are at an early age
made aware of this adventurous character of scientific research, their passion for it could
easily become exhausted. However, instead of engaging students in projects of actual
importance, their professional training typically deals with comprehensive theoretical
calculations and laboratory examples without any immediate research significance. Thus,
instead of promoting the sense of responsibility with an active involvement of students in
the projects of real-life significance, they are suffocated with laboratory practices that
possess predetermined outcomes. As a consequence, freshly graduated students have little
or no awareness at all how their knowledge could be implemented in the “real world”,
and are rarely attracted to find a research position in the home country. Instead, the most
talented graduates decide to pursue their subsequent studies and professional career
abroad. For example, 90 % of the graduates of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering in
Belgrade from the period between 1992 and 2000 continued their careers abroad, whereas
the general trend estimated among natural science students at Belgrade University is
slightly less drastic: 33 % find positions in foreign countries after the graduation. This
brings us to the central problem of the so-called “brain drain”.
The number of Serbian immigrants in the world is estimated to be more than half
a million, a large portion of them being highly educated people that emigrated during the
harsh economic era of the past 15 years44. In comparison, the majority of Slovenian
doctoral scientists after a short-time postdoctoral stay in foreign laboratories decide to
return. It is a question at which point the current trend of slow economic progress would
start reversing the intensity of “brain drain” phenomenon, the one that heavily damages
the local society. However, this phenomenon does not only have negative aspects. In fact,
it could provide a crucial impulse in the networking of local R&D infrastructure with
international institutions and associations, and as such could be under certain conditions
renamed into “brain gain”. There are examples of successful cooperation initiated by the
foreign-based scientists, either in form of common research projects, transfers of
technologies or expert consultations. Yugoslav Materials Research Society has through
its annually held YUCOMAT conferences proven that the professional relationships of
the intellectual diaspora in the field of materials science can indeed attract renowned
scientists from abroad and provide a space for the exchange of ideas and formation of
various types of collaboration45,46,47.
One of the strategies for the less developed countries to compete and possibly
catch up with the more developed ones is through keeping pace with them at the level of
excellence of the fundamental research. YUCOMAT conferences have presented
examples of well conducted endeavors to sustain this excellence by stimulating the
highest-quality research and connecting local scientists with the research trends that are
on the frontier of the contemporary materials science. Other nations have also worked on
organizing annual meetings of foreign-based scientific experts with the purpose of
including their knowledge in the process of crafting the science policies at the domestic
level, and Encuentros conferences conducted with the aim to integrate Chilean

researchers worldwide into R&D projects of domestic importance may be one example48.
Similar associations composed of scientific experts of Serbian origin have existed, with
ETF BAFA, an association of electrical engineers working in San Francisco Bay Area,
regularly promoting partnerships between foreign-based Serbian investors and domestic
technological projects, being one example. Fostering a more official recognition and
integration of such small foreign-based islands of experts into science policy making at
the domestic scale is thought to be an excellent step forward in this sense. The
contemporary electronic communication systems, including various networking
platforms, from Facebook to Linkedin to topical internet forums, can, in addition,
significantly facilitate the process of seeking potential partnerships. Among other steps
that ought to be taken to unfold the positive potentials of the “brain drain” are: (a)
enactment of legislations that would stimulate the links between academia and industry;
(b) instigation of scientists to engage in common projects at the international and local
levels alike; (c) building confidence in the actual economic and social surrounding; and
(d) opening the doors for the dialogue on the subject of incorporating the experience and
knowledge of scientists abroad into the selected areas of development, essential to
prevent early doubts and late dissatisfactions that often exist between the returning
migrants and their colleagues at home49. It should also be an ethical responsibility of
emigrating scientists to conceive and build the bridges between their countries of origin
and the countries in which they have settled in, particularly in view of the fact that the
public tax money used to pay for almost all high-school and college tuition fees until less
than a decade ago. In that sense, one should be reminded of the sententious words of the
Slovenian physicist and poet, Jožef Stefan, “Practical field is large, and a lot more is
required for the ascent of our men. However, penning so is a daunt task; for that, we need
men that have some science in their heads and some love in their hearts”50.
Only a spinning windmill can mill the wheat, and any grains thrown into a still
mill are predestined to go rotten. The same happens with human knowledge in the
deficiency of an intellectual infrastructure within the society. In a country like Serbia, the
major problem behind the scientific inefficiency in both research and application domains
is associated with an inability of scientific research to find a fertile ground at the local
level. This explains why R&D investments relative to GDP are at 0.5 % extremely low in
comparison to other European countries, and to the range of 2 – 3.5 % in the developed
countries in general (Table 2). Furthermore, the absolute amount of investments added up
to only 7.5 euros per capita in 2004, which is, however, five times more than 1.5 euros
per capita in 2000. Low investments have naturally corresponded to negligible levels of
scientific productivity on average. In a five-year period, 2000 – 2004, only 25 % of
scientists funded by the Ministry of Science had at least one article published in one of
the ISI Journals. Furthermore, the average research costs per article were at 33,000 euros
by an order of magnitude lower in comparison with the second-wave members of the EU.
Although Fig.3 demonstrates that scientific output is the function of the amount of
investments, it is a big question whether simple increases in investments in science
without a well-coordinated action of other governmental and industrial sectors, and long-
term prospects of economic progress, would be a smart solution. On the other hand, as
scientific productivity presents a strong indicator of the overall social welfare, placing
more emphasis on the significance of science in Serbia would present an inevitable aspect
of any progressive policies.

Fig.3. Number of ISI publications per million residents as a function of research funds
from the budget in euros per capita (left), and number of EURO patents per million
residents as a function of total research funds in euros per capita (right). The assigned
country numbers and the corresponding data are from Table 2.
Encouraging smart and competent methods for the allocation of research funds
presents another important step. However, corrupt and superficial ways of managing
these selection procedures, often dependent on political and social relations or years spent
in service rather than on true scientific expertise, are the major difficulty. The general
lack of transparency is reflected in the fact that governmental committees are partly
involved in the nomination and selection of heads of the research organizations, which
similarly to other social domains signifies the importance of fulfilling political interests
rather than claiming scientific or other types of professional excellence. In view of the
largest concentration of scientists at or around the academic and independent research
institutions rather than within industrial research centers, and a devastated high-tech
industry in comparison with the Yugoslav era (in fact, some of the first large-scale
investments of foreign companies in any of the Eastern European countries occurred in
the former Yugoslavia: for example, in the mid-1960s, the Japanese company Murata
initiated a cooperation in the field of capacitor ceramics with the Electronic Industry Niš,
which at those times also had a regular collaboration with Philips in the research of
magnetic ceramics, whereas in the early 1980s the Swedish company Sandvik engaged in
common production of cutting tools with the holding company Prvi Partizan), a novel and
multidimensional method for financing research is needed. Instigation of strong and
diverse education–research–innovation links that would be in favor of a facile
achievement and application of research results is equally required. In that sense, small
country size presents an advantage in terms of opening possibilities to design simple
research and innovation systems, whereby, on the other hand, its disadvantages are
mirrored in incessant concerns that resources, both financial and human alike, could be
less than optimal for the development of a modern knowledge-based society.

No.
Country
Population
in millions
2001 GDP
per capita
in 1,000
euros
Total research funds
and funds from the
budget in % of GDP
Total research funds
and funds from the
budget per capita (in
euros)
Number of
ISI
publications
per 1 million
residents –
annual
average
2000-2004
Average costs per single
ISI publication from
total and budget funds
(in 1,000 euros)
Number of
EURO
patents per
1 million
residents
High-tech
export out
of total
export (%)
1
Cyprus
0.8
18.5
0.27
0.20
49.8
36.9
293
170
126
7
2.7
2
Czech Rep.
10.2
13.3
1.24
0.48
164.7
63.7
485
340
132
10
7.8
3
Estonia
1.3
9.8
0.75
-
73.7
-
462
159
-
2
21.7
4
Hungary
10.2
11.9
0.69
0.41
82.0
48.7
429
191
114
12
22.9
5
Latvia
2.4
7.7
0.41
-
31.6
-
145
218
-
3
2.2
6
Lithuania
3.7
8.7
0.60
0.47
52.4
41.0
166
316
247
1
2.7
7
Malta
0.4
11.9
-
-
-
-
143
-
-
5
64.4
8
Poland
38.6
9.2
0.75
0.44
69.1
40.5
302
229
134
1
3.0
9
Slovakia
5.4
11.1
0.66
0.24
73.0
26.5
373
196
71
1
4.1
10
Slovenia
2.0
16.0
1.51
0.68
241.1
108.6
853
283
127
22
3.7
11
Bulgaria
8.0
6.5
0.57
0.45
37.1
29.3
195
191
151
3
2.3
12
Romania
22.4
5.8
0.40
0.10
23.2
5.8
94
246
61
1
4.5
13
Turkey
67.0
5.2
0.63
0.39
32.8
20.3
130
253
156
1
4.0
14
EU-15
377.5
23.2
1.93
0.73
447.8
169.4
924
485
183
126
19.7
15
Sweden
8.9
23.6
3.78
0.76
891.1
179.2
1790
499
100
-
-
16
Portugal
10.0
11.0
0.76
0.63
83.4
69.2
407
205
170
-
-
17
Serbia
7.5
1.4
0.10-0.35
(2000-2004)
~5.5 average
(2000-2004)
150
33
-
0-1
0-1
Table 2. Scientific and technological R&D parameters for different European countries and European Union prior to its expansion in
2004 (EU-15). Sources: Pamphlet on the research in the EU issued by the European Commission in 2003; B. Golob, S&T Institutions

and S&T Policies in the EU Acceding Countries – Challenges for the Development of the Knowledge Based Economy, Institute for
Prospective Technological Studies, Brussels, April 2004.

We have seen in the previous section that technological design and industrial
solutions that are demonstrated as successful in the context of a developed society many
times turn out to be disastrously impractical and inefficient when simply transformed to
less developed social circumstances51. As a result, the strategy of adjustment of
production capacities to local needs, and on the basis of ecological principles should be
promoted instead of the endorsement of massive and largely inert industrial facilities. In
that sense, it should be noticed that one of the major obstacles to implementation of
intrinsically “green” processing methods is tied to the fact that contemporary chemical
industries, based on synthetic methods developed in times when not much attention was
paid to their energetic, social and ecological costs, rely on heavy capital and gigantic
production capacities, and are consequently inflexible to the introduction of technological
innovations52. However, just as the evolutionary progress of biological systems has not
led to the growth of their elementary units (i.e. cells), but rather to an increased
complexity of intracellular metabolic patterns and cellular interactions with the
environment, the transition to progressive industry, incessantly open to scientific
innovations, should not lead to increase in the size of production facilities and
enterprises, but to formation of complex networks between socially adaptable (with
regard to facile transfer of technologies and knowledge), efficient and eco-friendly
fabrication and service units53. Along this line of thought, an example is offered by a
Slovakian team of scientists who succeeded in commercializing a nanobiocomposite-
based electrode for the purpose of in situ analysis of wine components, thus linking
nanotechnology with the traditional winemaking in an inexpensive and elegant way54. As
a result, we can say that original innovations aimed at suiting primarily the local
environments and coupled with an openness towards the international transfer of
knowledge seems to be a prerequisite for building advanced technological bases, from
which innovative and internationally competitive research achievements would spring.
Adjusting the technological performance of a small country to its size and to local
needs and capabilities should in ideal case present only an aspect of a wider social plan of
sustainable management. Considering the fact that rich countries have based their
progress on an overall degradation of the underlying natural capital, the chance of the
developing countries to overtake the developed societies in their progressive runs lies
exactly in the aspect of an advanced ecological performance. In that sense, Serbia could
nowadays learn a lot from Germany and the way in which it transformed its destructive
nationalism of the Second World War era into one of the most powerful and influential
social and political environmental conservation movements in the world. We cannot
afford giving up on hope that a similarly devastating form of nationalism that has been
released in parallel with the breakdown of Yugoslavia could be with the right incentives
from the international community and appropriate technological and educational policies
transformed into a truer and more productive “love of the land”. With such an approach
of tending one’s own garden first, the Berlin Wall of international isolation that has taken
an enormous toll on the potentials of intellectuals in Serbia could be finally toppled
down. At the same time, there is every reason to expect that opening the doors to fruitful
international communication and collaboration on R&D plan would have an ameliorating
effect on local political and social problems that are now, hopefully, only the remains of
the faint recent past, which is soon to be transformed into a bright and prosperous era in
the development of what is to be a vital part of the European science and economy.

Conclusion
By comparing two examples of countries that successfully arose from the
remnants of comparative poverty and established themselves as scientifically thriving
societies, South Korea and Slovenia, with the case of Serbia, a country that is presumably
on the doorsteps of a similarly explosive developmental path, guidelines for social
progress in the direction of greater scientific and social prominence were arrived at. Most
important of all, it is argued that the ideal model of growth is to be based on parallel
progress on the plane of R&D policies and on the level of excellence of scientific and
basic education. The “leapfrog” approach which dictates that the less developed countries
should learn from the mistakes committed by the developed ones and thus accelerate their
progress and catch up with the latter is invoked as an essential systemic strategy to be
adopted. Incorporation into global scientific network of cooperation is also outlined as a
necessity as much as stable and thriving local scientific and technological bases that
would make up for prolific grounds for an efficient transfer and implementation of
knowledge.
Furthermore, the signs of a healthy progress of any given society or natural
systems in general are evident in the parallel development of communication between the
systemic entities of different organizational complexity on one side, and their increasing
diversity on the other. Natural systems in their healthy states are diversified and
functionally differentiated as much as unified and well integrated. Once this systemic
property of progress is recognized, both rich and poor countries should gain
responsibility to promote it at their respective levels of control. The former should
primarily reorient towards ensuring not only fair transactions in terms of short-term
reciprocities, but primarily long-term sustainable interactions between developed and
underdeveloped countries of the world, which would foster the appropriate balance
between unity and diversity. The developing countries have the same task, but to be
carried out on far smaller plans. And we, individual human beings, in accordance with
the tradition of wisdom and ethics of our civilization, are responsible to pay attention to
the importance of the invisible roots of science, thought and creativity as much as on the
measurable welfare. For in the end, it is profound education that presents the foundations
of a sustainable society.
Vuk Uskoković was born in Belgrade, Serbia in 1976. He had obtained a BSc degree from the Faculty
of Physical Chemistry at Belgrade University in 2001, and in 2003 was awarded with an MSc degree
in Advanced Materials and Technologies from the University of Kragujevac. From 2002 to 2006, he
was with the Advanced Materials Department of Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia. He
obtained a PhD degree in Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies from Jožef Stefan International
Postgraduate School in 2006. From 2006 to 2007 he was working with Victor K. LeMer Prof.
emeritus Egon Matijević at the Center for Advanced Materials Processing of Clarkson University,
Potsdam, NY. The main topic of his research was the precipitation of cholesterol by the means of
colloid chemical methods. From 2007 to 2010 he was with the Department of Preventive and
Restorative Dental Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), where he was
involved in the research of biomimetic formation of biomineralized tissues. Currently, he is an NIH
fellow and a member of the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutics Sciences at UCSF where
he works on development of materials for advanced drug delivery. Besides his dedication to scientific
research, he has published books and critical reviews that through systemic perspectives cross-link the

subjects of science, philosophy, sociology, ethics and aesthetics.
Dragan P. Uskoković was born in Cetinje, Montenegro in 1944. He graduated from the Faculty of
Technology and Metallurgy at the University of Belgrade in 1967, which was followed by earning a
master's degree in 1971 and a PhD in 1974. From 1968 to 1974 he worked at the Institute for Nuclear
Sciences Vinča. From 1974 to the present day he has been with the Institute of Technical Sciences of
the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, which he was the director of from 2001 to 2011. He is the
Founding President of the Materials Research Society of Serbia. He published more than 200 articles
in international periodicals, managed more than 20 research projects in basic and technological
research and coordinated several international projects with leading research organizations (Max-
Planck Institute, Kyoto University, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology, etc.). His
scientific articles were cited more than 1300 times (h-index = 20).
Vuk Uskokovic, PhD
Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences
University of California
1700 4th Street, San Francisco, CA 94158-2330
phone: +1 (415) 412 - 0233
e-mail: vuk.uskokovic@ucsf.edu
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