High-Level Human Capital for the National System of Innovation

1
High-Level Human Capital for the National
System of Innovation

• Presentation to the Portfolio Committee for
  Science and Technology of the National Assembly
• 18 August2010

2
Delivery on the Governments Mandate

• The MTSF has identified skills, including
  high-level skills, as a significant constraint in
  the ongoing development of the economy and
  society.
• SA must increase its investment and return in
  human capital development particularly in
  science, engineering and technology if we are to
  achieve an equitable, sustainable, and inclusive
  growth path that brings decent work and
  sustainable livelihoods education health safe
  and secure communities and rural development.

3
HRD-SA

• Commitment Six We will improve the technological
  and innovation capability and outcomes within the
  public and private sectors (includes persons in
  employment) to enhance our competitiveness in the
  global economy and to meet our human development
  priorities.
• Strategic Priority 6.1 To increase the supply of
  skilled personnel in areas of Science,
  Engineering and Technology
• Strategic Priority 6.2 To improve South Africas
  performance in areas of teaching, research,
  innovation and the commercial application of
  high-level science, engineering and technology
  knowledge

4
Outcomes Framework

• a skilled and capable workforce to support an
  inclusive growth path.
• Output 4 Increase access to high level
  occupationally-directed programmes in needed
  areas increasing the graduate output in the
  natural and physical sciences and engineering.
• Output 5 Research, development and Innovation in
  human capital for a growing knowledge economy
  increase output of honours, masters, doctoral and
  post-doctoral fellows provide increased support
  to industry-university partnerships and increase
  investment in research and development,
  especially in the science, engineering and
  technology sector.

5
Priority Skills and Research Areas

• The five grand challenges
• The bio-economy,
• Expanding the limits of space science and
  technology,
• In search of energy security,
• Science and technology in response to global
  change,
• Human and social dynamics.
• The five geographical advantage areas
• Astronomy,
• Human palaeontology,
• Biodiversity,
• Antarctic research, and
• Indigenous knowledge.

• Scarce and Critical Skills
• Engineering and built environment
• Animal and Human health Sciences
• Natural and physical sciences, including
  agricultural sciences
• Economic sciences esp accounting and actuarial
  sciences
• Social sciences and humanities esp teacher
  education and histrory

6
Research and Innovation Enablers

• Infrastructure and Equipment
• Scientific Equipment discrete, free standing or
  mounted, desk-top to large, dedicated or
  multi-purpose.
• Specialized Facilities A physical and/or
  organisational structure that provides a
  controlled environment for specialized
  experiments and is required to ensure the optimal
  performance of research equipment.
• Cyber-infrastructure Comprehensive ICT -based
  infrastructures such as high performance
  computing, research networks, and data storage
  and management systems.
• High-end Infrastructure infrastructure at the
  interface between the RD and commercialization.
  e.g. pilot plants, incubators, and technology
  demonstrators.
• Global Infrastructure International large
  infrastructures, both single-sited and
  distributed ones linked by high-speed networks
  for optimal sharing of data and resources.
• People

7
High Level Human Capital

• Education WP 3, outlines mandate of universities
  in a knowledge-driven world.
• Human resource development the mobilisation of
  human talent and potential through lifelong
  learning to contribute to the social, economic,
  cultural and intellectual life of a rapidly
  changing society.
• High-level skills training the training and
  provision of person power to strengthen this
  country's enterprises, services and
  infrastructure. This requires the development of
  professionals and knowledge workers with globally
  equivalent skills, but who are socially
  responsible and conscious of their role in
  contributing to the national development effort
  and social transformation.
• Production, acquisition and application of new
  knowledge national growth and competitiveness is
  dependent on continuous technological improvement
  and innovation, driven by a well-organised,
  vibrant research and development system which
  integrates the research and training capacity of
  higher education with the needs of industry and
  of social reconstruction.

8
University Enrolments
Student head count
9
Shape of Enrolments
10
Shape of Total Graduates
11
International Profile of Post Graduates
12
Total Doctoral Graduates Profile
13
Profile of Female Doctoral Graduates
14
Steering Enrolment and Output - 2008
Level Total number of NRF bursaries Total number of registrations Proportion of students supported by NRF
Honours 1 271 66 917 2
Masters 2 657 41 711 6
Doctoral 1 500 9 994 15
All levels 5 428 118 622 5

The Department of Higher Education and Training
steers using institutional enrolment and output
planning, funding and quality assurance while
Department of Science and Technology steers at
the level of the individual student or research
staff.
15
Doctoral Graduates in some Desired Disciplines
Total research masters graduates increased by an
annual average of 3.9 from 2728 to 3699 from
2000 to 2008
16
Rate of Doctoral Outputs
17
Low Supervision Capacity
Staff with PhD
The carrying capacity of the HE system is low
because there are too few instruction/supervisory
staff with PhD degrees.
18
Age of Researchers and Research Productivity
The average age of SAs graduating with a PhD is
about 40 years. The impact of this is that it
usually takes them longer to complete and their
productive time is shorter.
19
Women Academics
Women constitute over 40 of research workforce
but only contribute 22 of total research outputs
20
SAs Research Productivity
Low absolute outputs but efficient - generates
more outputs per dollar when comparing GDP in
terms of purchasing price parity .
21
Critical Issues for Attention

• Encouraging the new generation of researchers,
  i.e., support more postgraduate students and post
  doctoral fellows.
• Developing the emerging researchers. i.e.,
  transform more new generation researchers into
  established researchers.
• Maximising the output of the established
  researchers, i.e., increase the number of active
  researchers and ensure that they produce the
  required knowledge and innovation outputs and
  supervise the next generation of researchers.

22
South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI)

• The aim is to
• Expand the scientific research base of SA in
  support of the National RD Strategy and other
  governmental strategies
• Increase number of world class researchers
• Attract and retain excellence
• Create research career pathways for highly
  skilled, high quality young mid-career
  researchers - address historical racial, gender
  and age imbalances

23
SARChi

• To date 82 Chairs awarded but 79 currently
  operational at 16 Universities
• Funding and Financing
• Award of up to R2.5 million per annum for Tier 1
  and R1,5 million for Tier 2
• Covers salaries, postdoctoral student awards,
  research operating costs and small equipment
• Large equipment funded separately
• Co-funding options with industry and other
  Government departments (First Rand Mathematics
  Education)

24
SARChI Institutional Distribution
2007 2007 2008 2008 2009 2009
Chairs recruited from South African universities 28 82 50 72 58 73
Chairs recruited from industry and abroad 6 18 19 28 21 27
Total Chairs 34 100 69 100 79 100

Tier 1 Chairs 25 74 53 77 63 80
Tier 2 Chairs 9 26 16 23 16 20
34 100 69 100 79 100
25
SARChI Equity Profile
2007 2007 2008 2008 2009 2009
Female 3 9 13 19 16 20
Male 31 91 56 81 63 80
Total Chairs 34 100 69 100 79 100

Black 11 32 27 39 30 38
White 23 68 42 61 49 62
34 100 69 100 79 100
26
SARChI Knowledge Distribution
27
SARChI HCD supervision
  2007 2007 2008 2008 2009 2009
Undergraduate 13 2 12 1 14 2
Honours 84 13 151 13 119 13
Masters 264 41 466 40 344 38
Doctoral 219 34 442 38 310 34
Post-Doctoral 64 10 93 8 124 14
Total 644 100 1164 100 911 100
Average Ratio 113
28
SARChI Research Outputs
  2007 2008 2009
Postgraduate students 62 169 438
Peer review journal articles 162 385 477
Books 4 11 10
Book chapters 13 58 62
Keynote addresses or plenary presentations 3 28 63
Technical reports 4 20 16
Non-refereed articles 0 8 5
Patents 1 17 7
29
Centres of Excellence (CoE)

• Guiding Principles
• Are physical or virtual centres of research
• Cluster of researchers
• Concentrate existing capacity and resources
• Enable collaboration across disciplines
• Enable collaboration across institutions
• Work on long-term projects
• Conduct locally relevant and internationally
  competitive research.

30
Centres of Excellence (CoE)

• At inception, the 7 CoEs were funded between R5
  R7 m only 2 were funded at 50.
• Funding escalated at 5 per annum
• Period of funding is 10 years, expected to be
  self sustaining after this period
• Key Performance Areas HCD, Research Outputs,
  Knowledge Brokerage, Service Rendering and
  Networking.

31
Established CoEs

• Biomedical TB Research
• to research new tools for the diagnosis,
  treatment and prevention of tuberculosis (TB)
• Birds as Keys to Biodiversity Conservation
• to focus on understanding and maintaining
  biodiversity using birds as indicators
• Invasion Biology
• to address the biodiversity consequences of
  biological invasions
• Tree Health Biotechnology
• to concentrate on understanding and combating
  diseases affecting South Africas indigenous trees

32
Established CoEs

• Catalysis
• to drive innovation in catalysis, a key process
  in the chemical and manufacturing sector
• Strong Materials
• to understand and improve the properties of
  advanced strong materials to increase their
  efficiency and reduce their cost
• Epidemiological Modeling and Analysis
• to use mathematical modeling to understand,
  predict and ultimately combat diseases
• Climate and Earth Systems Science (To be launched
  in 2010)
• to better understand climate forecasting and
  interactions between the atmosphere, land and
  oceans

33
CoE HCD Supervision
Level 2005 2005 2006 2006 2007 2007 2008 2008 2009 2009
Hons 25 9 11 4 19 5 51 10 33 9
Masters 134 47 131 44 172 50 217 43 170 46
PhD 92 32 125 42 125 36 173 34 119 32
Post Doc 33 12 33 11 30 9 66 13 49 13
Total 284 100 300 100 346 100 507 100 371 100
34
CoE Research Output
 Output 2007 2008 2009
Masters and Doctoral students 60 65 84
Peer review journal articles 295 315 409
Number of joint ventures 27 36 60
Patents 15 0 6
35

• Re ea leboha