Programme Director,
Prof Brenda Wingfield, Chairperson of the NSTF,
Dr Xola Mkhwanazi, Chairman of BHP Billiton,
Ms Jansie Niehaus, the Executive Director of the NSTF,
Vice-Chancellors of higher education institutions,
Chief Executive Officers of Science Councils,
Chief Executive Officers of companies and organisations,
Sponsors and funders,
Ladies and gentlemen.
Tonight we recognise and celebrate outstanding achievements and contributions in science, engineering and technology.
Let me begin by congratulating all the award recipients.
For the first time awards will be made to top achieving students. Excellent. Their achievements will help to spark an interest in science and technology at school.
I have just returned from the Euroscience Open Forum 2014 in Copenhagen, an extraordinary event where we were able to showcase South African science. In the words of the science journalist, Sarah Wild:
"What your average European scientist evidently does not know is that South Africa does some pretty great science, and that the EU actually partners with us. It shows that the work of diplomats, scientists and science journalists is never done. We must tell the stories of African science, not only to people on the continent, but to those outside too to gain partnerships that will help us develop."
In twenty years of democracy we have built a productive and internationally visible R&D system. Our aim since apartheid has been to refocus R&D investment in South Africa away from the past and towards the future. In the past under apartheid the three main R&D missions were self-sufficiency in defence, mining (and its related downstream industries), and agriculture. Now in our young democracy our focus is on new industries and new technologies.
Our focus is on strengthening South Africa’s R&D capability as an engine of economic growth. We have learned that what makes a R&D system strong is close attention to three important areas: a strong annual growth in funding basic research, a strong set of university-industry partnerships, and strong protection of intellectual property rights, especially in risky frontier fields.
South African funding of basic research has increased over the past twenty years. Our universities are no longer ivory towers remote from industry and community, but link closely into urgent national priorities. They are critical in sustaining in-depth linkages to global knowledge resources; and committed to nation building through the ownership of knowledge production and use.
It’s important that we continue to build a public environment supportive of our higher education institutions - an affirming culture that succeeds in bringing new talent into our universities. We recognise that higher education must, in addition to its responsiveness to urgent national, regional and global priorities, also generate its own next generation scientists and scholars. As with many developing countries, South Africa faces the challenge of grappling with the competition for scientists that is faced by poor and rich nations alike.
In this regard, our response has been to recognise that we need to nurture scientists to counter the challenge of a skills flight. We have made human-resource development a high priority – growing enrolment and graduation of postgraduates, growing enrolment of international students, and growing employment for permanent researchers at higher education institutions.
Yet it remains clear that we have not unlocked the talent of the majority of our people. This is our biggest challenge and our most exciting opportunity. We are working diligently towards establishing a diverse workforce of highly skilled young people in scientific and technological fields.
The prevalence of role models in any society is absolutely crucial in guiding young people towards careers in science. The National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) awards are a key intervention in this regard. By honouring and rewarding excellence in science and technology, this event serves to address the challenge we face in building the next generation of our research scientists. Since its inception in 1998, the NSTF Awards has become a beacon event that has enjoyed the support of a cross-section of institutions in business, universities and government.
As far as university-industry collaboration is concerned, it has to be said that historically our universities have been slow to promote spin-off companies, technology transfer contracts and patents. Government hopes to incentivize business through the R&D tax incentive scheme.
I want to add a word on the growing importance of international collaboration. Science is global. Innovation is global. Scientists are citizens of the world. Knowledge-intensive economies are connected through growing international research and cooperation networks. We seek to strengthen our international partnerships - both to enhance our own pursuit of new knowledge and to create an environment conducive to the transfer of technology.
For example, the Square Kilometre Array is one of the great scientific projects of the 21st century, developed by scientists in 17 countries. The Array is a new generation radio telescope that will open up new data on the universe and new technologies that have not yet been imagined.
The technologies that are being imagined now for the SKA and its precursors - such as signal processing, very fast computers and data transport, image processing and wireless - are key technologies in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for the future. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an iconic project for world science. It brings together ground-breaking science with cutting-edge technological innovations.
Science policy makers are keenly trying to replicate in other fields the plans and procedures that were so successful in winning the SKA bid.
The theme for tonight's event is crystallography, a field of science that is 100 years old. It's quite remarkable that 28 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to projects related to the field. In particular x-ray crystallography was one of the most innovative fields in the 20th century.
Which makes me ask this question: what will the cutting-edge innovations be in ten years’ time? Luckily, some scientists have been looking into their crystal balls and here are five of their best predictions (according to a Thomson Reuters study just released, The World in 2025: 10 Predictions of Innovation, a new report that predicts the landscape of science and technology in 2025 by mining global patent data and scientific literature):
The first is that solar will be the largest source of energy on the planet.
The second is that teleporting testing will be common. This prediction is based on the burst of research that has gone into the discovery of the Higgs boson. I look forward to teleporting and then I won't have to fly between Johannesburg and Cape Town.
The third is that we will live in a digital world. That is not so much a prediction. It's true now.
The fourth is that type 1 diabetes will be preventable. I quote from Thompson Reuters: "it will be possible to create a human genome engineering platform for identifying and treating disease-causing agents in humans. This field currently leads all areas of genetic-engineering patenting and has been identified as an emerging research front in the scientific literature."
The fifth, and the most frightening, is that there will be DNA mapping at birth. This is where nanotechnology meets big data. Precise cell-level screenings will be possible.
We need to reflect on what our future innovation ambitions should be. I think our scientists should help us end food insecurity, that we should invest in creating twenty smart towns and cities that have clean water, world class renewable energy technology, free Wi-Fi and excellent health services.
In addition we should focus on new technology in waste management to create 20,000 jobs and the conversion of waste to energy, the building of women owned technology companies, and focus our efforts in drug discovery companies on rare tumours and non-communicable diseases.
If we were to achieve just half of these, there would be significant support for our call for 1.5% of gross domestic product (GDP) to be invested in research and development.
Thank you!
