ASM Halal Science Initiative

Halal originates from an Arabic phrase that means allowed or permitted by Islamic Law. This term is mostly connected to the food and beverages industry, but this is no longer the case. Halal can be expanded to include other components, such as pharmaceuticals, medicine and medical devices as well as cosmetics and personal care. Halal Science can be defined as Halal Knowledge attained systematically through observation and experimentation study and practice to describe and explain the natural phenomena that relates to Halal practices.

Based on ASM’s New Economic Opportunities Report, the Halal Industry makes up 7.5% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2017. Globally, there is an increasing interest in Halal economic potential. Being a Muslim-majority country with a strong halal ecosystem, Malaysia has an advantage to leverage on this largely-untapped industry at the global stage to drive the nation’s economic growth.

The Halal Science Initiative will culminate in a position paper, which aims to:

• Provide a stocktake and analysis of Halal Science research in Malaysia;
• Identify knowledge aspects in Malaysia’s Halal Industry to be enhanced with science, technology and innovation;
• Provide recommendations for the relevant parties’ implementation in order to enhance Malaysia’s Halal Industry.

Various stakeholder engagements have been held, including several Halal Science Workshops and eight site visits to various organisations and universities, as well as a Halal Science Stock Take Survey that engaged both public institutes of higher learning (IHLs) and research institutes. From these engagements, the challenges faced in Malaysia’s halal ecosystem and recommendations to address these challenges were identified.

The following are some of the challenges identified in the position paper:

1. Governance: Currently, there are multiple players in the Halal Science ecosystem, with little to no link with each other. This leads to players duplicating efforts to champion Halal Science agenda as well as competing for resources. There are also no priority areas in Halal Science for all players to focus on.
2. Funding: The Halal Science landscape faces the challenge of a diluted funding pool, with no specific funding allocated for Halal Science R&D especially for the fundamental and basic research phase. Halal Science is also overlooked as it is not identified as a Research Cluster in any existing schemes. Further compounding to the issue is a minimal investment to support Halal Science by the local industry.
3. Talent: A general lack of understanding on the concept of Halal Science among researchers and stakeholders; a lack of inter-varsity collaboration of Halal Scientists and limited affiliation to the Halal Research Institute, low visibility of Halal Scientists and their expertise locally and globally as well as a limited training capacity and enrolment stemming from the lack of a dedicated agency for Halal training are some of the challenges that are faced.
4. Industry: There is no point of reference for industries to find matching Halal Scientists, leading to little or no collaborative efforts from them to consult Halal Scientists on product R&D.

Based on its findings, the Initiative proposed the following recommendations:

1. Governance: A National Halal Policy to be formulated and implemented by the Malaysia Halal Council, with JAKIM, Halal Development Corporation (HDC), Malaysia Standards (MS) and Consortium of Halal Institutes (KIHIM) and other relevant ministries and industry representatives to be among the implementers of the policy under said council. The council should also establish the strategic direction and priority areas for the Halal Industry.
2. Funding: Promoting a healthy system of financial support for the national halal industry by several key players, namely the government (via a centralised budget under the Malaysia Halal Council), industry (via investment and collaborations), international bodies (via research collaborations from Islamic organisations e.g. OIC, IDB and SMIIC) and crowd-sourcing (through sourcing from zakat and waqaf funds).
3. Talent: Halal Science needs to be mainstreamed to improve awareness and understanding of the concept. A database of Halal Scientists needs to be set up to promote halal science expertise, facilitate networking, improve visibility and act as a focal point for Halal Science researchers. Academic, professional and executive programmes in Halal Sciences must be increased to produce trained workforce at various levels to meet the needs of both Halal Science and the industry.
4. Industry: A collaborative network needs to be established in selected halal sub-sectors to drive collaborative R&D and market-driven delivery as well as connect players in both industry and academia.