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Pretoria – The Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC) earnings from research contracts and grants have increased ten-fold over the last three financial years until March 2003, now exceeding its annual Parliamentary grant for the first time in the HSRC's history. At a function today to launch the HSRC's annual report for 2002/03, CEO Dr Mark Orkin noted that annual earnings from research contracts and grants have increased from R6 million in 1999/00 to R61 million in 2002/03. The latest figure represents a 114% increase over the previous year. The Parliamentary grant has remained roughly constant at R61 million for the last three years. “This growth indicates the HSRC's increasing strategic focus on large, multi-year research programmes in collaboration with other institutions, said Dr Orkin. “In this way, by augmenting our funds from parliament with support from development agencies and foundations, we can deliver coherent, policy-relevant work on the scale demanded by challenges such as HIV/AIDS and unemployment.” Within the 200 projects undertaken by the HSRC during the latest financial year, the 50 largest projects, each costing above R500,000, together accounted for eighty percent of all project expenditure. The quest for new income has been part of the transformation programme of the HSRC, which began four years ago. At that time the responsible Minister, Dr Ben Ngubane MP, appointed a new governing council chaired by Professor Jakes Gerwel. Other aspects of the transformation have included tripling the number of researchers to 150, now nearly all with masters or doctorate degrees, aligning the institution's research programmes with national development priorities, and restructuring the administration. “Our ten research programmes, together with their project partners, can now meet social-research needs across the spectrum of government activities: education, employment, economic policy, rural development, HIV/AIDS and public health, social development, and governance, as well as topics such as social cohesion and the organisation of R&D”, Dr Orkin noted. Agencies collaborating in HSRC programmes include other science councils such as the CSIR, MRC and MINTEK, as well as universities and technikons, NGOs and international research agencies. Notes for editors The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) is South Africa's statutory research agency dedicated to the applied social sciences The HSRC undertakes ‘social science research that makes a difference’, concerned with all aspects of development and poverty alleviation in South Africa, the region, and in Africa. It undertakes policy relevant, often large-scale, research for government departments at national, regional and local levels, for other public entities, and for local and international development agencies. The HSRC's ten research programmes are: - Assessment Technology and Educational Evaluation
- Child, Youth and Family Development
- Democracy and Governance
- Democracy and Governance
- Human Resources Development
- Integrated Rural and Regional Development
- Knowledge Management
- Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS and Health
- Surveys, Analysis, Modelling and Mapping
- Social Cohesion and Integration.
The HSRC has approximately 150 researchers, mainly specialists, 30 trainee researchers doing postgraduate degrees, and 100 support staff. Its revenue is derived roughly equally from a Parliamentary grant and from earnings from tenders, commissions, and local and international foundation grants. The organisation has transformed itself to respond flexibly and comprehensively to users' requirements by: - radically restructuring and expanding its research capabilities into ten interdisciplinary research programmes aligned to major development challenges;
- recruiting top-quality research executives and specialists;
- integrating its many projects into large-scale national ventures in collaboration with researchers in other science councils, tertiary institutions, NGOs (here and abroad), and international development agencies.
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