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Address by Minister Mosibudi Mangena, at the National Science & Technology Forum Awards Ceremony
2006-05-19 13:35
Emperor’s Palace, Gauteng
Minister
False
Address by the Honourable Minister Of Science & Technology, Mr Mosibudi Mangena, at The National Science & Technology Forum Awards Ceremony 19 May 2006 Venue: Emperor’s Palace, Gauteng Programme Director Chairperson of the NSTF Board, Dr John Marriot; The Acting CEO of the NSTF, Ms Jansie Niehaus; The NSTF Membership; Sponsors and funders; Distinguished guests; Ladies and Gentlemen Science and technology continues to develop as a key element of national strategy. We should not assume that this as either a trivial or automatic process. It requires continuous engagement among role players. The forging of a national consensus on research, development and innovation remains an imperative. Resources are not unlimited, and we need to ensure that economic growth and the improvement of people’s quality of life remain the goals that we keep in view when seeking outcomes from the investment of public resources. Our higher education system has demonstrated a capacity to produce 1000 PhDs per year. There are nearly 800 000 students in the higher education system. This means that the number of graduates in the economy (currently at about a million) will double in the next 8 years or 100 months. At least 1 in 4 of these new graduates will be involved in health, science, engineering and technology. How will our economy respond to these changes? What will the 250 000 new SET entrants to the workforce be doing? Can we create 2500 SET jobs per month over the next 100 months? How many will enter careers in research? How many will start high technology businesses? How many will join the fight against poverty and disease? These are questions we should all be thinking about. The National Science and Technology Forum is in its eleventh year. Since its formation in 1995, the NSTF has been a key actor in developing the profile of science, engineering and technology in South Africa. Under the NSTF’s umbrella, representatives of government, private sector and civil society shared with each other the pains and jubilations of creating a new science and technology order. The NSTF’s mandate includes acting as a source of ideas and creativity, a sounding board, and constructive watchdog in the processes of growing, transforming and restructuring South Africa’s national science and technology system. The NSTF has thought a lot about excellence and effective contributions by institutions and individuals. It has established “best practice” norms, and seeks to catalyse the integration of progressive developments taking place in the fields of science, engineering and technology. It is against this background that the NSTF Awards must be understood. However, we also need to take account of the explosion of new talent coming into the economy in a very strategic way. Through the Awards, the NSTF emphasises the importance of “building the future” today. By recognising productive scientists and high performing schools and learners, the NSTF is creating opportunities for the productive science system of today and tomorrow. With Government’s focus on the development of priority skills in areas of scarce resources, we need to focus our energies on identifying and nurturing talent and potential in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. We need to address the challenge of developing a new generation of engineers, researchers and innovators working on matters of national relevance. The focus needs to emphasise innovation and new solutions crafted in our particular context. We need to ensure better resources for poor but high performing learners at all stages of their research career development cycle. Careers in engineering must be promoted and made attractive. Our institutions should ensure that they “put South Africa first”. Unless these things are done, the future of the system of innovation will be compromised. The NSTF recognises and rewards young people of potential who have overcome significant barriers and have achieved in maths and science. It rewards individuals and institutions in the system of innovation who are significant achievers. But the record of the NSTF Awards reveals a disturbing picture. Those who were disadvantaged by our unfortunate history still appear in a special “Black Senior and Junior researchers” category. While the background to the establishment of these categories is understood, we must interrogate this approach and avoid promoting a separatist ideology by default. The clear intention of government is to produce a more representative cohort of productive researchers. To achieve this goal, we need to develop benchmarks and work towards their achievement. This requirement also applies to the NSTF Awards. Given that the future of the science system is in the hands of the youth, we need to interrogate the extent to which the NSTF “family” invests in targeted youth developments linked to science and engineering. It is against this background that my department has developed, through an extensive consultative process, a Youth into Science Strategy. The dual goal of this Strategy is to promote science and technology literacy, and to enrol a more representative cohort of young people in engineering and technology-based careers. Local government faces huge challenges in service delivery. We need engineers and technically skilled people to address this reality. The diseases associated with poverty need a range of interventions if we are to address them and improve the quality of life of our citizens and those of our neighbours in this continent. Young people will not necessarily choose these challenging careers if they are not excited by science and technology, and provided with relevant career information from an early age. The Youth into Science Strategy proposes an enhanced network of Science Centres with a greater reach into under-serviced rural areas that is constructed with greater relevance. The NSTF has been engaged to develop and extend our Network of Science Centres, and I hope that we will receive greater participation and support in this endeavour. Early identification and nurturing of talent is essential. Some of our initiatives in this regard include the DST/Thuthuka Partnership for Mathematics and Science Camps, the Expo for Young Scientists, Supplementary Tuition interventions, and Mathematics and Science Olympiads. In their first year of implementation, the Camps attracted more than 1000 learners. The majority of these learners have since enrolled for further studies in accounting, engineering and science. It is heartening to see increasing numbers of learners passing mathematics and science with symbols higher than C. Some of those who do well in the Expo for Young Scientists compete with their peers in the International Science and Engineering Faire. We are indeed proud that South Africa will be hosting this global event in July next year. We trust that you will involve yourselves in making this a top quality celebration of youth and science in our country. Later during 2007, South Africa will also host an International Conference on Science Centres and Museums in Developing Countries. These activities are intended to strengthen and consolidate our Youth into Science Strategy. I hope these investments in our youth will enable us to achieve a representative critical mass of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians. If we can fail to produce an adequate representative cohort of highly skilled and productive researchers to do scientific research and run our technological systems, our country will fall behind in international competitiveness. We must intensify our endeavours to build a more conducive environment for science, technology and innovation. This includes interventions to create Research Chairs in universities, the tax incentives for business investments in R&D, and efforts to attract research intensive foreign direct investment, among others. R1 billion per annum of R&D funding flows from international sources into South Africa. This is about 10% of our total R&D spending. It is invested in firms, universities and research councils. This is a clear signal that international funders are attracted by the quality of South African research. Programmes such as the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor, the Square Kilometre Array Bid and the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative have attracted South African scientists and engineers back to the country. The National Biotechnology Strategy has had a similar effect. A more effective and modern infrastructure for research has been in the planning phase over the last year. We have new and additional budget resources available for this. This will lead to further gains and increased attractiveness of South Africa as a platform for research. We invite the NSTF to grab these opportunities. At the same time, we need to be more rigorous in localising the benefits of our research and innovation efforts. “South Africa first” should be our watchword. Intellectual property developed with public funds is leaky stuff. The new policy framework is in the final stages of completion, and it is my hope that as we develop the enabling framework and reward innovators more effectively and reliably, our institutions will develop the capacity to locate the innovations in South African firms, and avoid the “loss” of key technologies to overseas competitors. Many individuals played a pioneering role in establishing the NSTF and ensuring that it becomes at once a pressure group and a vehicle for transforming the science system. Death has robbed us of the services of Dr James Hlongwane at a critical point of his work towards the renewal of the NSTF into a formidable vehicle to contribute towards accelerated and shared growth. May his soul rest in peace! His unfortunate passing came at a time when government is injecting more financial resources to improve research capacity to develop more SET skills. We, however, take comfort in the realisation that his vision of an expanded representative science system is slowly but surely being crafted. The activities of the National Science Week are taking place in all nine provinces this week. We hope to deepen and intensify the participation of the NSTF in the Science Week activities. The certainty of participation by NSTF institutions should not distract our resolve to be more creative. Given the desperate need to mobilise our society to appreciate the importance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the enhanced involvement of the NSTF cannot be over-emphasised. We appeal to you to use tomorrow, which is the last day of the 2006 National Science Week, to encourage increased participation by our communities. We wish all nominees and winners every success. In you we have positive role models for the younger generation. The fact that you reached this level demonstrates the high standard of your work. We hope you will continue to inspire others in the same way. Ladies and gentlemen, may we all join in celebrating those who have been recognised by this Awards ceremony. I thank you. |
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