Technology transfer in humanitarian demining

Humanitarian demining efforts still rely almost exclusively on metal detectors, dogs and manual probing. Why are technology improvements so few and far between? Perhaps more money is being spent on research aimed (in part) at developing new technology to eliminate landmines than is actually been spent on mine clearance operations world-wide. This paper argues that R and D programmes need more emphasis on incremental improvements rather than very advanced technology. It also argues that the successful transfer of technology is a challenge in itself which requires much closer cooperation between research teams and end users than is currently the case. One model for successful technology transfer is presented. Part of the problem has been the unfortunate emergence of some myths concerning landmine clearance which may have resulted in the belief that high technology solutions provide the ultimate answers