ABSTRACT
In the late 1980s, Malta embarked on a ‘new paradigm’ path of S&T policy development, drawing on an innovative blend of national and international policy learning processes. These efforts were, however, dogged by a number of constraints arising from the national context: a small island state with a weak S&T infrastructure, low levels of R&D spending in the public and private sectors, and poor networking of local researchers at the national and international levels. The limited resources made available to the Malta Council for Science and Technology (MCST), the body set up to spearhead the process, in practice produced limited long-term results in S&T policy development.
