The withdrawal of US research funding had cost South Africa’s science system a substantial R2.5bn, putting research jobs and student degrees at risk, Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande told the Cape Argus last week.
The cuts had also exposed the country’s dependence on foreign support and weaknesses in how critical research programmes are financed, he added.
Nzimande was expected to release the latest report of the Ministerial Working Group on Science, Technology and Innovation Funding in Pretoria – it will be open for pubic comment until 31 December.
The group was established after the US withdrew funding for South African health research and clinical trial programmes, including work focused on HIV and TB.
Affected institutions included the University of Cape Town, Wits, the University of Pretoria, CAPRISA, and the South African Medical Research Council – the latter estimating that R1.6bn in cuts linked to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) had placed 1 930 research posts and 108 student degrees at risk.
One affected programme was an HIV vaccine trial which lost a newly awarded five-year grant worth $45m.
Nzimande said the NIH had indicated that some funding could be reinstated after determining that it did not fall within the definition of foreign aid.
The report recommends more predictable domestic funding for strategic research, protection of critical health, genomics, biotechnology and public health platforms, and increased public and private spending on research and development.
Currently, South Africa spends about 0.62% of GDP on research and development, short of the national target of 1.5%.
Nzimande said about 17.3% of the country’s R&D funding was dependent on foreign donors, with health research more exposed than some other fields.
“We can’t avoid donor funding as a developing country, but we must make sure our core priorities are not dependent on that,” he added.
The report also calls for South Africa to diversify its international funding relationships rather than relying heavily on partners in the US and Europe.
Nzimande said scientific sovereignty meant setting South Africa’s research priorities, sustaining strategic capabilities and protecting intellectual assets, while continuing international collaboration.
Department director-general Mlungisi Cele said reaching the target of spending 1.5% of GDP on R&D would require a review of existing research incentives and greater private-sector investment. Private-sector spending on R&D was below 50% of total investment and lagged behind international levels, he added.
Nzimande said government was already pursuing greater domestic scientific capacity, including vaccine development, and that South Africa was moving beyond the “fill and finish” stage of vaccine production and developing its own active pharmaceutical ingredients, including work on an oral cholera jab.
The report contains 11 recommendations, with Cabinet approving its core recommendations and its release for public comment.
The Presidency will also appoint a Science, Technology and Innovation Sovereign Risk Advisory Council, to be incubated by the National Advisory Council on Innovation, as government moves to implement the accepted recommendations.
Cape Argus article – Nzimande: US funding withdrawal cost SA research system R2.5bn
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