Excellencies,
HSRC Board members and CEO,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen
Last year I recall making three points at the launch of your 2008/09 annual report.
The first was about the importance of promoting research in the humanities. The humanities (languages, literature, creative arts) are felt by those in the humanities to be subordinate to the social sciences.
The second was about the importance of providing policy advice to government. The HSRC undertakes superb research that enriches our knowledge and understanding of South African society, but seldom provides explicit policy advice leaving that up to specifically designated agencies like the Council on Higher Education or the National Advisory Council on Innovation.
And the third was that we (in the DST and the HSRC) were busy conceptualising the human and social sciences grand challenge. A year later, much has happened – the humanities have been promoted, sound advice has been tendered, and the humanities grand challenge has been conceptualised.
There has been movement in the humanities field. ASSAF’s consensus study, under the command of Professors Vale and Jansen, is close to fruition. It is rumoured to offer us advice on how to fund the humanities better and to argue the case for setting up a humanities research council.
Minister Nzimande has also established a humanities task team under the control of Professor Ari Sitas. He will return to the minister with ideas on how to embed the humanities more firmly in our universities.
Down at UCT a new institute has been established to promote the study of the humanities in Africa. The time is ripe, the interest is there.
Yet we know that there has been a decline of the number of students taking humanities subjects and there is a general feeling that officially the humanities (and the social sciences) take a back seat to SET subjects.
Still we have built up key research strengths in the humanities and social sciences in our universities. As proof you need only look to funding. There is, according to the annual r&d surveys, more invested in the humanities and social sciences than in applied science and technologies.
So we do not doubt the importance of the humanities - in size and extent of funding, in number of practictioners, and in our international standing in the world of research. Our flagship research deals with the central questions of identity of the ancestors of humankind and the origins of our species in Africa. The rich history of this research into our origins and identity, including the palaeontological discoveries of the last century and more recently, would be the poorer without the historical research that accompanied it.
Since the 1970s an influential intellectual movement has revised our understanding of our political and socio-economic past. Although identified specifically with the disciplinary field of history, it has drawn together and fused insights from sociology, archaeology, anthropology and economics, as well as influenced multi-disciplinary fields like women’s studies, African studies and trans-disciplinary perspectives on identities.
Moving on to my second point from last year, there is no better example of social science research in action that the HSRC’s CEO.
Olive Shisana leads by example on health issues, CEO as she is of the HSRC and chair of the ANC’s National Health Insurance task team. I need hardly say that the overhaul of our health system is an enormous undertaking.
There are others in the HSRC as well who follow her example and this is the theme of the 2009/10 HSRC Annual Report, “The Bigger Picture”.
Social scientists focus on generating new knowledge about ourselves, new knowledge about our wider identities, and on understanding issues to do with legislation and public policy. Sometimes this requires scientists to focus exclusively on a relatively small and specialised area of work.
However, for social-science research to make a difference there is also a need to look at the bigger picture, to bridge the gap between research and policy.
This annual report contains reference to several projects where research has made an impact. This was made possible because the projects were designed around implementation networks – consisting of people with the necessary expertise to help researchers to move from their research to the bigger picture and back again.
Forms of research vary greatly, yet fundamental to all is a knowledge base generated within and across disciplinary boundaries, making possible innovation and multiple forms of collaboration — national, regional and international. The global knowledge economy demands a strong research and innovation capacity that is dependent on new forms of knowledge production and dissemination, and requires research contexts that are “network enabled”.
Today, I would like bring you to up to date with progress in developing the DST’s ‘Human and Social Dynamics in Development’ grand challenge.
We have chosen four thematic areas of research.
The first theme is science, technology and society. This theme is conceptualised as the relationship between innovation, economic growth and the impact of technological development on societies.
Under this theme we will promote research that is aimed at improving the quality of the public schooling system especially to produce more qualified mathematics and science learners.
The HSRC has long been involved in research in education - in such areas as the training, performance, attitudes and demographics of the teaching profession; matric performance; science and mathematics education, and skills development.
The HSRC also undertakes important studies dealing with aspects of innovation, including the annual R&D survey and the innovation survey. The second theme concerns the dynamics of human and social behaviour.
The thrust of this theme is the exploration of individual and societal behaviour over time. How do individuals, families and other informal groups grow, learn, change and adapt? What are the dynamics of inter-generational relationships? How do social attitudes change and shape human behaviour over time?
The third theme is social cohesion and identity. Under this theme we encourage research that explores topics such as diversity and nationhood, xenophobia, and the impact of changing family structures.
The fourth theme is societal change and the evolution of modern society. Here we encourage research that deals with transformational trends, such as globalisation, environmental change and other scientific changes that promote or impede social change. This theme includes the investigation of the health status of South Africans and involves many disciplines - epidemiology, demography and biostatistics.
HIV and AIDS poses the greatest challenge to a long and healthy life for all South Africans, and is the cause of the country’s poor ranking in the UNDP’s Human Development Index.
The HSRC’s regular national HIV prevalence, incidence and communication surveys aptly illustrate the multi-disciplinary approach advocated in this grand challenge.
The surveys have become an iconic resource for researchers and policy-makers, and continue to serve as a lightning rod in the understanding, monitoring and control of the HIV epidemic in the southern African region.
In closing, the HSRC’s 2009/10 financial statements show that it has achieved the highest total expenditure in the history of the organisation. I would like to congratulate the Chairperson and members of the new HSRC Board, the CEO and members of her executive management team and each and every staff member HSRC for a year’s work well done.
This annual report bears testimony to your commitment, and your achievements in this regard.
