The National Development Plan (NDP) offers a long-term perspective. It defines a desired destination and identifies the role different sectors of society need to play in reaching that goal, Minister in The Presidency: National Planning Commission, Trevor Manuel, said at a media briefing on the implementation of the plan on 19 February 2013.
The NDP aims to eliminate poverty and reduce inequality by 2030. According to the plan, South Africa can realise these goals by drawing on the energies of its people, growing an inclusive economy, building capabilities, enhancing the capacity of the state, and promoting leadership and partnerships throughout society.
NDP2030's Executive SummaryThe TYIP is aimed at assisting to establish a knowledge-based economy for South Africa, in which the production and dissemination of knowledge lead to economic benefits and enrich all fields of human endeavour.
The missions and platforms under the NRDS were expanded under the TYIP to include grand challenges in space science and technology, energy security, human and social dynamics in development, global change, and the bio-economy.
The responsibility for addressing the grand challenges is spread across many government departments.
The TYIP also set long-term goals based on the grand challenges it identified. They included:
The department has set indicators for each of these goals.
South Africa’s Research and Development Strategy, launched in 2002, aims to enhance the National System of Innovation, a cluster of interacting public and private organisations focused on nurturing and developing science and technology in South Africa, with the specific aim of accelerating economic growth.
1. Academy
3. Centres of Excellence — 研究開発拠点
4. Centres of Competence (CoC’s) — 産業技術総合センター
5. South African Science Councils — 国家研究開発機関
The key objective of the Academy is to promote and apply scientific thinking in the service of society. The Academy’s objective are to:
The NRF was established through the National Research Foundation Act (Act No 23 of 1998), following a system-wide review conducted for the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (DACST). The new entity incorporated the functions of the research funding agencies that were previously servicing various sections of the research community, namely the former Centre for Science Development (CSD) of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the former Foundation for Research Development (FRD) that included several National Research Facilities.
As an independent government agency, the NRF promotes and supports research in all fields of knowledge. It also conducts research and provides access to National Research Facilities. The NRF provides services to the research community especially at Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Science Councils with a view to promote high-level human capital development. The NRF aims to uphold excellence in all its investments in knowledge, people and infrastructure.
The core competencies of the NRF are embedded in:
The National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO) was established to promote and manage the objects of the Act. These include the identification, disclosure and statutory protection, and management and commercialisation of the IP referred to it by a recipient of public R&D funds. NIPMO aims to ensure that recipients of funding from a government funding agency assess, record and report on the benefit to society of IP emanating from publicly financed R&D. Recipients must protect IP emanating from publicly financed R&D from appropriation and ensure that it is available to the people of South Africa. A recipient must identify commercialisation opportunities for IP emanating from publicly financed R&D.
Human ingenuity and creativity must be acknowledged and rewarded. The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) was established in terms of the TIA Act, 2008 (Act No. 26 of 2008), with the objective of stimulating and intensifying technological innovation in order to improve economic growth and the quality of life of all South Africans by developing and exploiting technological innovations. TIA's core business objective is to support the development and commercialisation of competitive technology-based services and products. The Agency primarily uses South Africa’s science and technology base to develop new industries, create sustainable jobs and help diversify the economy. It invests in the following technology sectors: Advanced Manufacturing, Agriculture, Industrial Biotechnology, Health, Mining, Energy and ICT.
Research at this Centre is dedicated to modelling of disease transmission and progression, focusing on South Africa's major health challenges.
Epidemiology is a quantitative, interdisciplinary science using mathematical modelling and dynamical analysis to provide patterns of disease progression, in space and time, at population and within-hosts level, to identify the principal causes of diseases and to provide health policy makers with a sound scientific basis for their decisions.
The research projects are all fuelled by the need to alleviate the effects of major diseases currently affecting people in South Africa, and in Africa as a whole, in particular the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The projects and key issues being addressed are:
Mathematical modelling of epidemics in populations and modelling of malaria control.
This Centre acknowledges the outstanding contribution made by the Forestry and Agriculture Biotechnology Institute (FABI) to the field of biotechnology as applied to trees. This Centre will focus on the field of tree health, which is of tremendous importance, both nationally and internationally, yet which is not particularly well known outside the agricultural and forestry domain.
Other than being highly relevant to South Africa, a country that depends heavily on agriculture and forestry, this field has the attraction of being strongly multidisciplinary. This is because the environment, the inherent nature of trees themselves and a wide range of organisms which impact negatively upon them, crucially affect tree health. Thus the fields of silviculture, agronomy, genetics, plant pathology, microbiology, entomology, molecular genetics and others are all important and relevant to this domain. The proposed Centre will seek to integrate research in these fields.
Research at this Centre focuses on chemical catalysis (homo- and hetero-) mainly for the conversion of gas to liquid fuels and for downstream processing aimed at adding value to bulk chemicals. With the manufacturing sector being the largest contributor to South Africa's GDP and with chemical manufacturing the largest single contributor to the South African manufacturing sector, chemical processing is recognised as a distinct field for targeted innovation initiatives as emphasised in the National Research and Development Strategy - and catalysis lies at the heart of 90 % of all chemical transformation processes.
This Centre acknowledges the outstanding contribution made by the Percy FitzPatrick Institute to the understanding of, amongst other things, biodiversity conservation. The research programme will be based on two inter-linked themes, understanding and maintaining biodiversity. The first investigates the composition and structure of biodiversity, the processes responsible for its generation and how relationships between organisms and their environments influence the form and functioning of biological systems.
The second builds on the strong theoretical and empirical foundation provided by the first to assess, predict and manage human impacts, with emphasis on understanding dynamic links that lead to biodiversity loss, developing effective strategies to stem this loss and discovering ways to use components of biodiversity sustainability to the benefit of South Africa.
This Centre studies materials such as hard metals, metal alloys, metal oxides, ceramics, diamond and diamond-like materials and composites including carbon nanotubes. Strong materials retain their distinctive properties under extreme conditions and thus have wide applications in the manufacturing and mining industries in South Africa and abroad.
It is extremely important to improve the properties of currently used materials for higher efficiency and cost reduction. In the longer term, the burgeoning fields of advanced strong materials being newly synthesised or in the process of further development are of great potential commercial value. This Centre will address both objectives and its various specific programmes fall within an area identified as being of major importance in the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Strategy of the South African Government.
This Centre is concerned with the biology of invasive species. Special attention is paid to the impact that invasive species have on southern Africa's biodiversity, agriculture and ecotourism. The key issues and questions that are being addressed are:
Research at this Centre includes all aspects of TB diagnosis, testing & treatment. This includes the molecular and clinical point of view as well as genomic and proteomic studies of the TB Bacillus and its interaction with humans. With the third highest incidence rate and second highest mortality rate in the world, South Africa is facing a tuberculosis (TB) problem of such magnitude that this disease has been declared a national health emergency.
The rampant HIV co-epidemic plaguing this country has exacerbated the problem enormously. Although some improvements could be made in controlling TB through reform of existing control programmes, it is widely acknowledged that a quantum leap in the quality of tools for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of TB will be required if there is to be any hope at all of eradicating this devastating disease.
The DST is partnering with industry and public research institutions, including universities, to establish a network of CoCs focused on research and development and commercialising new technology. Currently two (2) CoC's have been created in the area of Titanium and Hydrogen Energy.
Over the past decade, there has been a growing realisation in South Africa that the country has an industrial opportunity to add more value to its vast resources of titanium-bearing minerals. Cost-effective methods for producing titanium metal and its alloys followed by their conversion into net and near-net products, offer the potential of a vibrant new South African industry sector.
As the vehicle to establish the technology building blocks of such an industry, the DST formed the Titanium Centre of Competence and contracted the CSIR to manage this national network of research institutions, universities and private companies. This is illustrated in the TiCoC diagram.
From mineral to titanium metal powder: piloting a titanium metal production process
To date, no organisation in the world has been able to produce titanium powder directly in a continuous manner on a commercial scale from titanium tetrachloride (TiCl4 – the usual precursor used for titanium metal production). The CSIR is developing a process that can do just this, and is currently building a pilot plant to scale the technology up.
The national benefits that would arise from a world-scale, low-cost titanium metal plant are considerable.
Titanium powder to metal product: Powder metallurgy a cost-effective technology crucial for establishing a titanium industry Powder metallurgy techniques are cost-effective and offer a huge advantage in material savings. Using these methods the low-cost locally produced titanium, its alloys and composites can be converted into finished and semi-finished products.
Building SA’s future one layer at a time with laser additive manufacturing
The CSIR, Aerosud and the Central- and Vaal Universities of Technology are developing a suite of unique laser additive manufacturing systems and processes that will place South Africa at the forefront of this technology, with tremendous benefits to the local manufacturing industry. The success thereof will see the creation of a knowledge base and capacity that will enable South Africa to generate sustainable wealth and future opportunities in additive manufacturing.
Casting titanium: a new opportunity for South African foundries
With investment casting, it is possible to cast parts with intricate shapes and thin walls into a near-net shape, meaning that the parts will only need limited machining after the casting process. The CSIR and ALD have developed and is qualifying a process to produce titanium castings using an investment casting process, while ensuring that it is both cost-effective and commercially viable.
Strong new hybrid materials for aircraft
in its quest to support the aerospace manufacturing industry, the CSIR is looking at different materials that will work best for aircraft. Using alternating layers of carbon fibre and titanium, a strong yet lightweight hybrid material emerges that combines the advantages of both metals and composite materials.
The test: is it strong enough to meet world class standards?
Products produced with locally-developed titanium and processes need to be of a world-class standard, especially if it is to be used in the biomedical or aerospace industries. To test material properties a mechanical testing laboratory has been established at the CSIR. Here, anything from tensile tests to fracture mechanics takes place.
The hydrogen economy is undergoing serious consideration in South Africa, in an effort to develop safe, clean and reliable alternative energy sources to fossil fuels. Hydrogen is an energy carrier and is used to store and distribute energy and can be combined with the use of fuel cell technologies to produce electricity. Another driving force behind this technology is the prevalence of platinum reserves found in South Africa. Platinum group metals (PGMs) are the key catalytic materials used in most fuel cells, and with more than 75% of the world’s known platinum reserves found within South African borders, there is great potential for socio-economic benefits to be obtained from these natural resources.
Within the DST’s grand challenge on energy security, this interest in hydrogen falls under the National Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Research, Development and Innovation strategy, branded as Hydrogen South Africa (HySA) in 2008. The strategy stimulates and guides innovation along the value chain of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in South Africa, aiming to position the country to drive and optimise local benefits from supplying high value-added products (i.e. PGMs) to the potentially increasing international markets. These local benefits should include economic benefit, through job, wealth and new industries creation; the development of appropriate skills and human resources capital; and an improved quality of life for all South Africans.
Three Centres of Competence (CoC) have been established by DST to implement the HySA strategy, and are charged with unique responsibilities collectively geared towards attaining the goal of supplying 25% of global PGM based catalyst demand by 2020.
The three CoCs are:
The combined efforts of these three CoCs are aiming towards the research and development (R&D) of a variety of hydrogen fuel cell technologies so that fuel cells can be “tailor-made” for specific uses and applications. Potential products being championed by the CoCs include a portable power source for use as a back-up power source as a quieter and cleaner alternative to generators. The second potential product is a combined heat and power (CHP) source based on fuel cells, to supply decentralised power and heating for buildings and industries. Popular in colder countries, these CHP systems offer high efficiency and low emissions, and can operate from existing natural gas distribution networks, providing up to 10kw power for domestic and up to 150kw for industrial buildings. South African R&D is focusing on developing internationally competitive and marketable CHP systems and critical CHP system components, to meet the needs of the international market.
South Africa's seven science councils are statutory parastatal organisations established by the government, each with a unique and valuable scientific research specialisation.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is one of the largest scientific and technology research, development and implementation organisations in Africa. The organisation undertakes and applies directed research and innovation in science and technology to improve the quality of life of South Africans. About 35% of the annual budget is funded by the State Science Vote, with the balance provided by contract R&D, sales of services and products, technology licensing agreements and joint-venture operating companies. www.csir.co.za
Mintek, South Africa's national mineral research organisation, is one of the world's leading technology organisations specialising in mineral processing, extractive metallurgy and related areas.
Collaborating with industry and other R&D institutions, Mintek provides service test work, process development, consulting and innovative products to clients worldwide.
Mintek is an autonomous statutory organisation and reports to the Minister of Minerals and Energy. About 35% of the annual budget is funded by the State Science Vote, with the balance provided by contract R&D, sales of services and products, technology licensing agreements and joint-venture operating companies.
www.mintek.co.za
The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) is South Africa's statutory research agency and conducts research that generates critical and independent knowledge relative to all aspects of human and social development. Alleviating poverty and developing and implementing policy central to its research activities. The HSRC's research also extends beyond South Africa through projects and collaborations in other African countries.
www.hsrc.ac.za
The Medical Research Council (MRC) conducts research through six national programmes, and collaborates with most of the world's top health-research agencies to improve the nation's health status and quality of life.
The MRC disseminates research information through the National Health Knowledge Network. The council has established the African Biotechnology Information Centre in co-operation with various universities.
The MRC's National HIV and AIDS Lead Programme coordinates the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative (SAAVI).
SAAVI has grown from a small core group of researchers into a large biotechnology consortium, which works on various aspects of developing and testing novel HIV vaccines.
www.mrc.ac.za
The Agricultural Research Council (ARC) is committed to promoting agriculture and related sectors through research and technology development and transfer.
www.arc.agric.za
The Council for Geoscience supplies the country with geoscience data to establish a safe cost-effective physical infrastructure.
www.geoscience.org.za
The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) produces, maintains and disseminates standards. It promotes standardisation in business and government, and administers compulsory standards on behalf of the State. It also certifies international quality standards.
www.sabs.co.za
The South African National Space Agency (SANSA) was established in 2010. Following a period of rapid growth and transition the agency has made significant advancements towards addressing its mandate of deriving greater value from space science and technology for the benefit of South African society.
www.sansa.org.za