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Pretoria – The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) is now "significantly different and transformed", says the HSRC Chairman, Professor Jakes Gerwel. This is borne out an Institutional Review of the organisation by a panel of international and local experts, conducted in October 2003. The previous Institutional Review, in 1997, found the HSRC at that time to be inward looking, unrepresentative in its staff, bureaucratically bloated and producing outputs of dubious quality or relevance to users. The term of the current Council concludes at the end of October this year. In his message in the HSRC's 2003/04 Annual Report, launched at a function in Pretoria today, Gerwel says that one of the outgoing Council's major tasks was to oversee the transformation of the HSRC into an organisation "more fully attuned to the nature, challenges and demands of the country's new democratic dispensation". Transformation initiatives have resulted in increased participation of black and women researchers at all levels; far-reaching restructuring of both the research and support services; and a comprehensive understanding of the implications of the societal values of non-racialism, non-sexism and equality for an organisation such as the HSRC. Yet, the ultimate test for a science council resides in the quality of its research work and outputs. The Council enjoyed a continuous dialogue with the senior research management team about questions of quality and quality assurance. "These conversations went beyond issues of measurability, like peer-reviewed publications and the number of reports produced. They addressed the nature of knowledge production, the relationship between commissioned research and more basic enquiry and theory building, the question of voice giving through science to marginalised sectors of society, the interaction between science councils and other institutions of knowledge production, and other related themes." There is always need for further improvement and progress, says Gerwel. Still, the Council is convinced that the HSRC has made great progress in becoming a science council fit for the purposes of a democratic South Africa. The Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Mosibudi Mangena, is in the process of appointing the new Council.
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