Programme Director;
Dr Max Price, Vice Chancellor of the University of Cape Town;
Dr Charles Rotimi, Chair of the African Society of Human Genetics;
Prof Bongani Mayosi, Chair of the Working Group on Non-Communicable Diseases and Head of Medicine at the University of Cape Town;
Scientists and researchers,
Distinguished guests;
Ladies and gentlemen;
I am delighted to be here today.
Research in science and technology has always thrived in a context of collaboration and competition. It has thrived in a community of critical colleagues and the contribution of an individual researcher has always been greatly enhanced by the support from the community of other researchers and scholars.
It’s important that South Africans collaborate with other African countries in producing more PhDs. In the past African doctoral students tended to study abroad. Traditionally, the “brain drain” has been from the less developed countries to the developed countries.
However, other directions of student flow are now emerging, such as mobility within Commonwealth countries and South-South or North-South flows. Nearly 30% of doctoral graduates in South Africa are international and most of them come from the rest of the continent. We are hoping that South Africa can contribute to minimising the brain drain out of the continent and become a preferred destination of postgraduate studies and research for African students and academics rather than Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.
Last year, in 2010, the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) published the PhD study. It showed that South Africa is short of PhDs and short of PhD supervisors. Increasing the number of well-trained PhDs in South Africa is one of South Africa’s most critical challenges.
I talk about well-trained PhDs intentionally, and avoided talking about numbers. Whereas it would look good for South Africa to produce many PhDs, it would even be better if the PhD graduates could contribute to innovation, through which the production and dissemination of knowledge leads to economic benefits and enriches all fields of human endeavour.
South Africa’s prospects for improved competitiveness and economic growth rely, to a great degree, on science and technology. The government’s broad developmental mandate can ultimately be achieved only if we take further steps on the road to becoming a knowledge-driven economy. Transformation in this direction will necessarily shift the proportion of national income derived from knowledge-based industries, the percentage of the workforce employed in knowledge-based jobs and the ratio of firms using technology to innovate.
The impact of higher education on the intellectual base and culture of our young democracy is difficult to measure and therefore perhaps not often enough or sufficiently recognised and valued. What remains enduring — here and elsewhere in the world — is that the development and maintenance of intellectual capital depends fundamentally on a vibrant research culture that must be sustained by a society’s higher education institutions.
Yesterday it was my pleasure to address the H3Africa meeting. I was energised to see African scientists in action, creating new networks. I was particularly impressed by establishment of the Young Researchers Forum. Economic development and future prosperity does not rest on independent and isolated actions and activities, but requires regional interventions and planning.
Africa’s commitment to collaboration in science and technology was highlighted at the 2007 Summit of the African Union Heads of State and Government. Taking the cue from that Summit, South Africa has established collaborative research platforms throughout the Continent - initiatives such as the Africa Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), African Laser Centre (ALC) and the Southern African Network for BioSciences (SANBIO) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) initiative.
Africa today is an ideal environment in which to establish new hubs of research. The promise for young researchers, working in a scaffolded and supportive environment is immense. The international collaborations, like H3Africa, will be hugely valuable in developing capacity locally and sustaining research momentum.
I stand here in the presence of - in awe of - the most illustrious plenary and keynote speakers that I have ever seen on African soil. This is testimony to their support for the African and Southern African human-genetics enterprise. So let me take this opportunity to say that South Africa is proud of its research achievements in the health and life sciences.
South African universities are among the leading 1% of universities in the world in several disciplines – clinical medicine, plant and animal science, social sciences, environment ecology, geosciences, and bio-chemistry.
Cape Town leads the country in clinical medicine. It has an international reputation in medical research that goes back to the heart transplant era, the cat scan, and even earlier. It’s not something that can be built up overnight, but it is something that can be run down in a short time through underfunding.
Particular sectors of the economy can be powerful drivers of growth and innovation on their own. But those sectors need to be able to draw on indigenous academic excellence. The key element is the emergence of a particular economic sector based on university excellence in the same field.
I think of the the information technology industry in Los Angeles, finance in New York and what cars are (or were) to Detroit. Boston and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is another example. If companies founded by MIT graduates and faculty formed an independent nation, the revenues produced by the companies would make that nation the 24th largest economy in the world.
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.
We are also working hard on aligning our industial and innovation strategies at the national and regional levels. There are three major departments that support the health sciences, and the Department of Science and Technology is one of them.
Within the biotechnology space, we are proud of the achievements of South African researchers. Especially in the area of tuberculosis research, South African researchers are working closely with the National Institutes of Health in drug discovery and development for new potential TB drugs. The work being conducted at the University of Cape Town, as well the Centre of Excellence for Biomedical Tuberculosis Research, both at the University of Stellenbosch and the National Health Laboratory Services are world-class.
In the arena of clinical research, we are very proud of the results of the CAPRISA 004 clinical trial, that offers a sliver of hope to women in the battle to fight the HIV and AIDS epidemic. The South African government and the Government of the United States are investing in further investigative studies to confirm the results of the CAPRISA 004 trial.
The same group of researchers also conducted research into the initiation of antiretroviral treatment after starting TB treatment. The findings from the SAPIT study will be used to re-evalute the treatment regimes of patients co-infected with HIV and tuberculosis (TB).
The national Department of Science and Technology has entered into negotiations to establish a health-technology park in the Cape. The aim of the Cape Health Technology Park will be to provide physical infrastructure to researchers working on the development of medical products, as well as shared laboratory space for new start-up companies.
Aligning national and regional growth and innovation policies with industrial policy is a central element in our new economic growth path.
I wish you everything of the very best in your deliberations over the next four days, and trust that you will enjoy your stay in Cape Town.
Source: Department of Science and Technology
