By More Matshediso
Pretoria - Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor says government remains the largest funder of research and development in the country, while the business sector remains the largest performer thereof.
The Minister said this means that government is a major investor, while it may be contracting the business sector for actual practice.
She revealed that the latest research and development survey shows that South Africa had spent R23.871 billion on research and development in 2012/13, which means an increase of 7.5% compared to R22 209 billion reported in 2011/12.
The Minister said this during the launch of the latest research and development expenditure survey results, in Pretoria on Wednesday.
“Government funded 45.4% while the business sector funded 38.3% of all research and development undertaken in 2012/13. Funding from government increased by 13.3% from R9.562 billion in 2011/12 to R10.832 billion in 2012/13.
“This shows that the outlook for research and development investment in the country is improving, following the contraction in the two consecutive years, 2009/10 and 2010/11,” the Minister said.
She added that South Africa’s Gross Domestic Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) amounted to R23.871 billion in 2012/13.
“This is the second consecutive year that GERD has increased,” she said.
The survey covers research and development performed within South Africa by government, the science councils, higher education institutions, business enterprises and non-profit organisations (NPO).
Minister Pandor said the higher education sector is the biggest contributor to the increase in GERD and it received R5.396 billion (49.8%) of the total government funding for research and development.
“The government has purposefully and steadily increased its funding for research and development over time, understanding that achieving substantive technical progress requires long-term government commitment.
“This is consistent with the National Development Plan (NDP) and should send important signals about government's commitment to making South Africa a competitive nation,” said the Minister.
However, the Minister said spending on experimental development declined between 2008 and 2012, and spending on medical and health sciences has overtaken the spending on engineering sciences.
She also said real estate and business services sector was higher than in the manufacturing sector for the second time of the research and development business expenditure in the financial intermediation.
“… We are concerned about a decline in manufacturing because that is the sector where we want to see job creation and economic growth,” she said.
She said there has been an overall increase in the total research and development personnel headcount, driven largely by the increase in the number of researchers in the higher education sector.
“The total headcount on research and development personnel grew by 9.1% (64 917) in 2012/13. The higher education sector contributed the most [37.7%] to the recorded increase in research and development personnel in 2012/13, and the bulk of its contribution consisted of researchers, including doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows.
“The growth in the headcount of women researchers has been impressive and reinforces South Africa's position as one of the global leaders, in terms of the proportion of women in the total researcher workforce,” the Minister said.
She said the Medium Term Strategic Framework (2014-2019) includes a policy target that GERD be increased to 1.5% of GDP in order to support growth and development.
The survey was conducted by the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII), at the Human Sciences Research Council. - SAnews.gov.za
