KUALA LUMPUR:
Mimos Bhd will be signing on Mesdaq-listed Scan Associates Bhd
(Scan) as its first partner to commercialise its research.
Its president and
chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Wahab Abdullah told The
Edge Financial Daily on the sidelines of a media retreat in
Langkawi last week that the research organisation will be
signing on Scan following approval from the Ministry of
Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) this month.
He said an
announcement on the partnership between both organisations was
expected to be made during the National Innovation Conferences
and Exhibitions 2007 on Nov 30.
Scan was selected
by Mosti’s commercialisation unit to commercialise Mimos’
information security research, he said. A typical partnership
agreement would be two years, he added.
Last month, Scan
announced that it was in talks with Mimos for a possible
collaboration. It said the collaboration would include Mimos’
cyber security research output, such as Certificate Authority
Engine for MyKad codenamed CA4MyKad, First Live CD, Cyber
Early Warning System (CEWS) and Secure Electronic Document
System (SEDS).
Information
security is one of five technology clusters that Mimos’
research efforts are centred on. The other four are grid
computing, knowledge technology, wireless communications and
microelectro mechanical systems (MEMS) and nanoelectro
mechanical systems (NEMS).
On industry
partnerships in the other four areas, Wahab said Mimos was
awaiting a list of partners from Mosti.
Earlier, during a
media briefing, he told reporters that Mimos aimed to engage
with industry partners to commercialise its technologies by 2Q
next year. “By 1Q we will be ready to pass on (our technology
platforms) to the industry,” he said.
According to
Wahab, once Mosti selected a partner, the partner firm would
build solutions using Mimos’ technology platforms. Mimos
meanwhile, would receive royalties for its technology
platforms from these partner firms, he said.
The company pays
55% of research royalties to its researchers, while the
remaining 45% goes to Mimos to cover administration costs
involved, he added.
Mimos’
commercialisation plans will also include tapping into the
economic corridors, Wahab said. “We want to ensure that our
technology flagships are taken to economic corridors.”
Elaborating, he
said the Northern Corridor Economic Region (NCER), with its
focus on agricultural development, offered opportunities to
deploy Mimos’ MEMS and NEMS technologies in the modernisation
of agriculture, such as soil monitoring systems for improving
quality of crops and higher yields, he said.
In the East Coast
Economic Region (ECER), Mimos hoped to tap into the region’s
cultural and arts heritage by using its grid computing
platform to develop the animation industry and human
capital.
“This will be
done in tandem with MDEC, which is pushing for ICT focus in
ECER,” he added.
As for the
Iskandar Development Region (IDR) the south, Wahab said while
Mimos had the technology solutions, they first had to identify
the IDR’s requirements. Wahab also said Mimos planned to file
50 patents by year-end. It has to date filed 34 patents and
243 patent disclosures to date.
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