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Media Release South Africa spent about R10.1 billion, or 0.81% of GDP, on research and development (R&D) in 2003/04. This is according to the national Survey of financial and human resource inputs into R&D, undertaken by the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII) of the HSRC Knowledge Management Group. The Survey was commissioned by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and follows that of 2001/02. The 2003/04 figure represents an improvement on the situation reported in the 2001/02 R&D survey, which recorded R&D expenditure as R7.5 billion, or 0.76% of GDP. The Survey was carried out according to the guidelines provided by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Frascati Manual and in consultation with national and international experts in the field, especially Statistics Canada. The intensity of R&D expenditure (measured as the percentage of GDP expended on R&D) is a good indication of the competitiveness of a country’s economy. The OECD country with the highest R&D intensity is Sweden (4.27% of GDP), followed by Finland (3.46%). The United States R&D expenditure measured 2.60% and the average for 15 European Union member states was 2.26%. The European Union has set a goal of achieving an average R&D expenditure of 3% of GDP by the year 2010. In comparison with other developing countries which provide figures to the OECD South Africa proportionately spends more on R&D than Argentina (0.41%) but less than China (1.22%) and the Russian Federation (1.28%). The R&D Survey involved comprehensive surveys of business, government (including the eight science councils such as the CSIR, HSRC and MRC), higher education and non-profit sectors. Survey coverage of the business sector was significantly improved especially in the service sector, and for small and medium sized companies. The Department sincerely thanks all the organizations that took the time and effort to provide the HSRC with the information requested for this important Survey. Numerous respondents again suggested that annual R&D surveys would in fact be preferable to the biennial surveys that have to now been the norm. From 2005 the Survey will be conducted annually, which is in line with emerging OECD practice. It is expected that results of the 2001/02 Survey will appear in the July 2005 edition of the OECD Main Science and Technology Indicators. The R&D Survey figures presented here are the main results for the survey as calculated by the HSRC. The final reports on the 2003/04 Survey will be hosted at www.hsrc.ac.za/RnDSurvey where the previous Survey is already available. South Africa has a total of 25 185 full time equivalent (FTE) R&D personnel, comprising researchers, technicians and other support staff. About 56% of these personnel comprise the 14 129 FTE researchers or academically qualified people who perform, manage and guide the process of undertaking research that leads to new knowledge and novel research findings. While South Africa’s R&D expenditure is fairly high compared to other developing countries the total number of researchers expressed as the number of researchers per thousand total employed is low at 2.2 researchers per thousand employees. Comparative figures are Argentina 1.8, Russian Federation 7.4 and China 1.1 researchers per thousand employees. The demographic profile of researchers in South Africa is changing slowly but surely. Women researchers now comprise 38% of the total researchers compared to 11.2% in Japan, and 28.4% in Norway. In developing countries Argentina leads the way with 50.5% women researchers. Most South African R&D is performed in the major research field of engineering sciences (comprising 24.8% of total R&D), followed by Natural Sciences (21.9% ) and the medical and health sciences (13.5%). The business sector is the major performer and financer of R&D in the country and performs 55.5% of all R&D undertaken and finances 58% of total R&D. The higher education sector undertakes 20.5% of national R&D while government performs 21.9% of the total but finances 28.1% of R&D. About 10% of South Africa’s R&D is financed from abroad. In other developing countries that supply data to the OECD, governments tend to finance between 33.3% of R&D (Chinese Taipei) and 74.3% of R&D (Argentina) while in OECD countries governments on average financed 28.9% of total R&D expenditure in 2001, ranging from 18.5% in Japan to 64.8% in Poland. Altogether about 24.2% of total R&D performed in the country comprised basic research representing an expenditure on basic research of about 0.19% of GDP. Relatively few OECD countries provide the OECD with information on expenditure on basic research but Japan spends 0.38% of GDP on basic research and the figure for Korea is 0.37%. The US spends 0.59% of GDP on basic research. It is important to have a strong basic research component in a country’s national system of innovation in order to challenge and train new researchers. Basic research is also important in that it provides the inputs to applied research and experimental development for which there are several important funding sources in South Africa such as the Innovation Fund, THRIP, Competitiveness Fund, Support Programme for Industrial Innovation, and other national funders and international sources such as the EU 6th Framework Programme for Research. Applied research and experimental development contribute to economic development by providing new R&D based products and processes with potential for introduction to the market. The strengthening of the R&D system through national policies and mechanisms including special support for cooperation across what is termed the ‘triple helix’ of business, government and higher education sectors can only lead to a more competitive international position through R&D based innovation and there is now sufficient empirical evidence in the world to support this notion. In the 2001/02 Survey CeSTII computed the ratio of R&D expenditure to GDP as 0,76%. Subsequent revision of the composition of GDP pulled this ratio down to the value of 0.73%. It is therefore highly encouraging to report the 2003/04 value at 0,81% that reinforces our previous view that optimism is called for. Growing the national system of innovation yet further will require significant inputs of people and funding. But it is the people that are most important in this relationship. Download a copy of the High-Level Key Results from the 2003/04 National Survey of Research and Experimental Development (R&D)
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