Your worship Obed Mlaba, Mayor of eThekwini
Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo, MEC for Health, KwaZulu-Natal
The organisers of the Bio2Biz 2009 and South African Society for Microbiology conferences
International participants
Distinguished guests, academics and business leaders
Students
Programme director
A very good evening to you all
I’d like to extend warm greetings to our overseas visitors.
The Department of Science and Technology has identified innovation as a key focus for the next ten years. The intention is to derive value from the relationship between science and entrepreneurship. This means we must encourage consistent and focused dialogue between business and researchers. This conference provides a platform for such interaction. Our objective is to encourage new ideas and to support the development of ideas into business products and processes.
The department believes that the biotechnology industry may be the foundation for growth through innovation. In 2001 we published the national biotechnology strategy and in our 2007 ten year innovation plan we set out on an ambitious vision for the biotechnology sector. As part of implementing that vision, incubator hubs for promoting biotechnology research and innovation were set up. Four biotechnology innovation centres were created: Cape Biotech, BioPAD, LIFElab and PlantBio. The Centres have recorded important achievements.
Over the past five years, they have supported the establishment of 30 new start-up biotechnology companies, stemming from university research and intellectual property generated by South African innovators. More than a 1 000 research jobs have been created. The pipeline of innovative products and services is growing year on year.
The current period of recession is a worrying threat to our innovation growth strategy. Many countries tend to cut research and development budgets during economic downturns. Research has shown that countries experiencing long term growth are those that continue to find research and new ideas generation even in the hardest times. It is vitally important for South Africa to continue its support for innovative research and cutting edge commercialisation.
It is also vital to strengthen African and global collaboration in technology. There are many opportunities for regional partnerships in information systems development, communications, biotechnology and energy science. It’s no longer enough to work in silos, government here, business there. It’s no longer enough simply to intensify current strategies in innovation. We have to do things differently. We have to close the gap between the innovative idea and the creation of the new product or service. It’s time to prepare our whole society for innovation.
The basic research in computer sciences (BRICs) will soon be migrating to the recently established Technology Innovation Agency (TIA). The Technology Innovation Agency has been established to allow an integrated approach for the promotion of innovation, including in biotechnology. TIA is a public funding agency that will ensure that local research and development receives support that will ensure conversion of ideas into commercial products and services.
TIA’s primary objectives are to stimulate the development of technology based products, services and enterprises, develop a technology base for the South African economy, and facilitate the development of human capital for innovation. TIA and the various research funding organisations will provide a coordinated coherent support base for research and development.
The heavy burden of disease in our region gives our search for biotechnology solutions added impetus. The development of research and innovation platforms and programmes will facilitate rapid drug discovery, rational drug design and development, the validation of traditional therapies, and advances in diagnostics, genomics and proteomics, which will, we hope, help us produce radical and affordable treatments and cures.
We want to make South Africa one of the top 10 nations in the world in terms of the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, flavour, fragrance and biopesticide industries by 2018.
South Africa is rich in biodiversity and the government has initiated programmes for the development of medicines based on traditional remedies. Already, we have initiated four bio-prospecting and product development flagship projects; on traditional medicines, cosmeceuticals, nutraceuticals and ceramics and registered a Bachelor of Indigenous Knowledge Systems degree, the first of its kind in the world.
We’ve learned from the experience of other countries that particular sectors of the economy can be powerful drivers of growth on their own. The key element has been the emergence of a particular economic sector based on university excellence in the same field. South African universities are among the leading one percent of universities in several disciplines; clinical medicine, plant and animal science, social sciences, environment ecology, geosciences, and bio-chemistry.
The point I’m making is that you won’t find sectoral excellence without indigenous academic excellence in the same field. And this is why we are committed to maintaining research excellence in our leading disciplines in our research intensive universities.
A related area of critical interest for the department is intellectual property, arguably the cornerstone of the life sciences sector. The Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research Bill was signed into law last year, clarifying the ownership of intellectual property arising from research and development carried out using public funds, and ensuring that intellectual property emanating from publicly financed research is protected and commercialised for the benefit of all South Africans.
This piece of legislation gives the country’s knowledge generating institutions clear guidance on how best to manage intellectual property and how to make sure it gets out into the marketplace and is used to benefit South Africans. The legislation also provides for the establishment of the national intellectual property management office, which will be responsible for the establishment of offices of technology transfer at higher education institutions. These offices will have to be staffed with people with the requisite mix of skills, qualifications and expertise in entrepreneurship and intellectual property protection and commercialisation. We’re going to see a lot of change and the re-engineering of our system in the next year or so to drive the structured innovation agenda.
In closing, I want to compliment the conference organisers on the parallel sessions they arranged; the half day Fellows Training programme (which provided students with the opportunity to experience rigorous professional development training and personalised industry mentoring), the women in science session (which gave the women in industry a chance to interact with their scientific colleagues), and the South African students’ session (which provided students with a platform to tell delegates about the work they are involved in at their respective institutions).
We are very grateful for your contributions, in the form of the knowledge and experience you have shared, the thought provoking questions you have asked, and the financial investments you have made.
South Africa provides many incentives for thoughtful investors. International reviewers have commented favourably on our economic policies in cushioning South Africa from the present economic downturn. Our research institutions and infrastructure now compare favourably with some of the best in the world. There are many opportunities for partnership and collaboration.
Ladies and gentlemen, I do hope you will enjoy this evening. I ask you to take the opportunity to introduce yourself to a stranger, to strike up a conversation with someone you don't know, and to indulge in innovative discussion. Who knows where it might lead?
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
22 September 2009
Source: Department of Science and Technology (http://www.dst.gov.za/)
