South Africa’s Science and Technology Minister, Mosibudi Mangena, off

The South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) is expected to retain and attract world-class research scientists into the country’s National System of Innovation (NSI).

It is also expected to retain qualified scientists and researchers and reverse the systemic decline in research outputs and knowledge generation at the country’s publicly funded higher education institutions, science councils and research institutions.

Amongst other things, the initiative will enable the creation of research career paths for highly skilled, qualified young and mid-career researchers. This is critical for government to effectively address historical gender, racial and age imbalances in the country’s scientific research workforce.

The launch marks the conclusion of round one of the SARChI and saw Minister Mangena unveil the names of the first 21 Research Chairs recruited from South Africa, Africa and abroad.

The appointed Research Chairs will now assume responsibilities in their host institutions during 2007. It is envisaged that this programme, which has already been allocated R200 million, will produce 210 research chairs by 2010 with the potential to develop targeted research capacity in support of the National Research and Development Strategy and other national initiatives.

Minister Mangena has since commended the candidate institutions “for having cast their nets wide locally, regionally and continentally in search of exceptionally and excellently qualified candidates for the Research Chairs positions”.

The first-round Research Chairs were identified through a process involving the receipt of more than 90 pre-proposals, from which 56 short listed candidates were invited to submit full proposals.

The full proposals were subjected to reviews by a panel of peers, including international researchers and assessors. These peer reviews were then scrutinized by a joint Department of Science and Technology (DST) and National Research Foundation (NRF) Awards Committee, which made the final recommendations on the matter for final ratification by the Director-General of the DST, Dr Phil Mjwara, as well as the President of the NRF, Prof Mzamo Mangaliso.

A one-day consultative workshop was subsequently held with the Deputy Vice Chancellors and Research Deans of the 17 represented higher education institutions, to discuss overarching principles to guide this initiative as well as the various modalities associated with its implementation.

Research Chairs were awarded at two tiers, with Tier 1 awarded to those candidates with excellent and exceptional research and student supervision records which continue to be on an upward trajectory.

Tier 2 Research Chairs were awarded to fast developing and emerging researchers according to their research and student supervision records.

Launching the SARChI, Minister Mangena said the successful adaptation of scientific and technological knowledge developed elsewhere often required significant national capacities.

“These include qualified human resources and the potential to adapt the knowledge and technologies to local conditions. Furthermore, developing countries may face indigenous challenges such as locally-specific diseases or agricultural problems that require a significant amount of qualified human resources,” he said.

For this reason, the DST is already implementing a number of human capital development programmes such as the Research Professional Development programme, the Innovative Post-Doctoral Fellowship programme and the Centres of Excellence (CoE) programme.

The Research Professional Development programme affords young Masters and Doctoral students opportunities to expand their research experience through placement at a science council, a university, or at a research and development laboratory in industry.

The Innovative Post-Doctoral Fellowship Programme targets outstanding doctoral graduates for post-doctoral fellowships aimed at furthering research and innovation experience at higher education institutions.

The Centres of Excellence (CoE) programme has seen the establishment of seven centres of excellence aimed at creating synergy amongst and leveraging existing research capacity and resources in a range of fields.

Issued by the Department of Science and Technology

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