The HSRC Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators team is made up of a cohort of researchers, data analysts, and professional administrators from diverse academic and professional backgrounds. 

CeSTII’s Executive Head

Dr Glenda Kruss, the Centre’s Executive Head, is an acclaimed researcher of the relationship between firms, universities, and communities. Recent books by Dr Kruss include:

• Skills for the future: New research perspectives (2019)
• Linking universities and marginalised communities: South African case studies of innovation focused on livelihoods in informal settings (2016)
• Balancing multiple mandates: The changing roles of science councils in South Africa (2016)
• Academic interaction with social partners: Investigating the contribution of universities to economic and social development (2012)

Theme leaders

CeSTII has three research themes and a fourth theme to support, coordinate and advance CeSTII’s research. Theme leaders are:

Theme 1 – Dr Nazeem Mustapha: Measuring R&D capacity in South Africa

Theme 2 – Dr Moses Sithole: Measuring innovation capacity in South African firms

Theme 3 – Dr Il-haam Petersen: Policy-related indicator development

Theme 4 – Mr Gerard Ralphs: Capacity building, digitalisation and data management

International Advisory Committee

The CeSTII International Advisory Committee is a group of independent senior scholars and science policy practitioners from all over the world. The committee provides strategic research advice to CeSTII on research design, methodology and data analysis. Members of the Committee include:

• Prof. Susan Cozzens (Chair 2022-) (US)
• Prof. Sunil Mani (Vice-Chair) (India)
• Dr Petrus Letaba (South Africa)
• Prof. Erika Kraemer-Mbula (South Africa)
• Dr Pedro Mendi (Spain) 
• Prof Almamy Konté (Senegal)
• Dr Flávio José Marques Peixoto (Brazil)

Committee alumni

• Prof. Fred Gault (Chair 2017-2022) (Canada)
• Dr Jeffrey Orozco (Costa Rica)
• Dr Ann Kingiri (Kenya)

Quality assurance

South Africa’s R&D surveys are considered official statistics as defined by the Statistics Act No. 6 of 1999. CeSTII has been identified as a key source of quality statistical research, and adheres to the South African Statistical Quality Assessment Framework (SASQAF) (Stats SA, 2010). Data are also submitted annually to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and to the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook.

Partnerships

Since it was founded in the early 2000s, CeSTII has been a leader in sharing expertise and providing training to SADC and other African countries, and in the development of national R&D and innovation indicators in line with the OECD manuals.

There is growing debate in international networks about how to adapt and design measures that are in line with local realities, using OECD-related surveys as the starting point for adaptation.

Working in collaboration with UNESCO-UIS, African Observatory on Science, Technology and Innovation (AOSTI), NEPAD-ASTII and the SADC Secretariat, CeSTII provides training, particularly in data analysis, in response to these opportunities for learning.

CeSTII also collaborates closely with Namibia’s National Commission on Research, Science and Technology on their national R&D and business innovation surveys.

Advocacy partnerships

CeSTII works closely with partners across the South African national system of innovation to promote STI indicators as a tool for policy reflection. A key partner is the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI), which produces a national report on STI indicators. Each year, CeSTII collaborates with NACI to promote the report to stakeholders.