South African National Survey of Research and Experimental Development: main report 2019/2020

he South African National Survey of Research and Experimental Development is conducted annually by HSRC-CeSTII on behalf of the Department of Science and Innovation. In 2019/20 the gross domestic expenditure on research and experimental development (GERD) amounted to R34.485 billion. In nominal terms, this represents a decrease of R2.299 billion from the R36.784 billion recorded in 2018/19. At constant 2015 Rand values, GERD decreased by R3.227 billion (10.3%) from R31.367 billion in 2018/19 to R28.140 billion in 2019/20. This is clearly not a desirable trend. Growing our capacity for innovation in South Africa not only needs higher investment in R&D to reach GERD/GDP targets, but also entails growing the number of R&D personnel with the skills and expertise to conduct research in key fields. South Africa's R&D personnel headcount declined by 2.3%, from 84 036 to 82 068 between 2018/19 and 2019/20. In 2019/20 the main sources of funding for R&D in South Africa were government (including science councils and university own funds) and, to declining degrees, the business sector. While government funding of R&D increased by R1.942 billion from the previous year, domestic business funding dropped by R5.175 billion. Funding from abroad, which went mostly to the private sector, increased by R664 million. Government funds the largest proportion of GERD in South Africa which demonstrates its continuous commitment to invest in R&D to tackle the country's socio-economic challenges. The 2019/20 survey results show that the strongest focus of R&D activity is in medical and health sciences (21.5%), followed by the social sciences (16.9%) and engineering sciences (13.4%).The Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), recognising the critical role research and innovation plays in South Africa's response to COVID-19, invested in interdisciplinary research, including the development of point-of-care diagnostics for detection of COVID-19, targeted surveillance and the development of new technologies to prevent or control COVID-19. Our genomic surveillance led to the detection of two variants, and this work has been praised and welcomed globally.