International Partnerships Enable The Sharing Of Experience

It is important to know that science and technology know no borders. International co-operation is crucial for research and innovation. Engagements with international partners not only enable the sharing of experience and expertise but also constitute a potentially valuable source of foreign investment.
The Department of Science and Technology is leading the effort for South Africa to increase its annual gross expenditure on research and development performed in the country to 1,5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Currently, it is about 0,76 percent of GDP. On average, about 15 percent of the annual investment in research and development performed in South Africa comes from international partners. To reach the ambitious target of research and development spending of 1.5 percent of GDP, a significant contribution from science and technology-oriented foreign investment will be required.
These dynamics are not unique to South Africa – countries across the world compete to attract foreign investment, for example, by offering multinational companies incentives to relocate their research and development activities.
A ministerial committee, commissioned in 2010 by myself to review the science, technology and innovation landscape and its readiness to meet the needs of South Africa, accordingly recommended every effort should be made to enable the country to become a preferred global science and technology investment destination.
The department heeded this call and, over the past five years, has worked concertedly to promote foreign investment in South Africa’s National System of Innovation – the broader collective comprising all public and private sector research and technology organisations.
Efforts by the department include the proactive marketing of flagship national research programmes and projects to international investors such as those related to vaccine or drug development for the fight against infectious diseases or hydrogen and fuel-cell technology.
It has worked to enhance the value of the National System of Innovation to international investors through incentives such as tax credits for research and development investment. In order to attract foreign investment, the department also co-invests with international partners in strategic projects through dedicated funding. Above all, the department has worked to position itself as an accessible, reliable and strategic interlocutor for international partners.
Over recent years, the department has leveraged on average close to R500 million in foreign investment in the National System of Innovation annually. Key partnerships, in addition to those with a range of multinational companies, include co-operation with the EU which, through its Horizon 2020 Framework Programme, is a major investor in the initiative. Co-operation with foundations and philanthropists has been particularly successful, resulting in major investments. This is a portfolio with rich potential for the future. Globally renowned philanthropic donors, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Wellcome Trust, are among the department's strategic partners.
The Gates foundation, for example, has committed investment of more than R200m in a range of South African health innovation projects and research programmes focused on improving food security and sanitation. The life sciences sector, in which South Africa has acclaimed global expertise, is also a beneficiary of the Carnegie and Wellcome institutions.
It is not the securing of foreign funding in itself that is the department’s primary objective, but rather the manner in which these investments complement and support research capacity.
International investment should, thus, in the first instance, be harnessed to contribute to building South Africa’s knowledge generation and exploitation capacity. International experience, especially in the developing world, offers disquieting examples of how foreign funding can distort a research and development agenda away from national priorities. This is a scenario the minister and the department are determined to prevent occurring.
The benefits of international co-operation in science, technology and innovation, however, also extend far beyond the monetary investment it enables. International co-operation in science builds friendships, promotes understanding and fosters solidarity across the divisions of geographic borders, political orientations or linguistic and cultural differences.
This is valuable currency for our fragile planet in these troubled times. The department will, therefore, continue to pursue a comprehensive science diplomacy agenda focused on the sustainable development goals and ensure the National System of Innovation plays its part in addressing globally shared societal challenges, such as climate change; food and energy security; pandemic disease and inequality.
This is a strategic imperative for the department, as science and technology truly know no borders.THE IOL