Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators
Policy-related indicator development
Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators • Policy-related indicator developmentAs the implementation plan for South Africa’s White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation (2019), the Decadal Plan (2022-2031) aims to create a new policy approach and places strong emphasis on monitoring, evaluation and learning, implying a clear need for new evidence. Through our portfolio of policy-oriented project work, we aim to inform the design of contextually appropriate measures and indicators that can contribute to such evidence.
ENGAGEMENT, INNOVATION AND INCLUSIVE DEVELOPMENT
Studying engagement in three local settings
Digital storytelling with informal business owners in Philippi
In 2018, the HSRC team collaborated with the Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation (SLF) to co-facilitate a digital storytelling workshop with participants from Philippi township. This was part of our experimentation with using participatory visual methods to investigate innovation and knowledge flows in informal settings.
Through an intense five-day workshop, the team worked with seven informal business owners from Philippi East to produce a set of short video clips describing their lived realities of entrepreneurship in the township. The digital stories provided insight into the challenges they faced and how they used innovation to overcome these challenges.
The stories highlight knowledge needs and show how informal business owners address their knowledge needs. Through these stories we were able to gain an understanding of the roles that universities and science institutions are playing and could play in a township setting. The stories also indicate the role of other types of education and training providers including NGOs.
Digital stories by informal businesses in the services sector in Philippi East
A partnership for impact
This project was led by the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII) in collaboration with the Education and Skills Development (ESD) research programme at the HSRC.
The HSRC team collaborated with four strategic partners to strengthen the quality and impact of the research:
- Advocacy partner: South African Higher Education and Community Engagement Forum (SAHECEF). Together, we hosted eight interactive workshops and seminars in Philippi, Cofimvaba, Carnarvon and Sweetwaters – and thus engaged stakeholders in four provinces in South Africa.
- Capacity-building partner: Bertha Centre for Social Innovation based at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. A total of 15 NRF-bursaries were allocated to students registered in the Master’s in Inclusive Innovation programme over the three-year period, 2017 to 2019. The students’ research covered a range of topics related to inclusive innovation such as how micro-property developers in townships can attract impact investors, and the impact of mobile technologies on scaling informal, female-owned street vendor businesses.
- Case study research partner: Prof. Mogege Mosimege, Professor and Head of the School of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology Education at the University of the Free State (UFS). Prof Mosimege led the case study team exploring the role of universities and science councils in supporting the use of ICTs for rural development in Cofimvaba.
For more information, contact Dr Il-haam Petersen (ipetersen@hsrc.ac.za) or Dr Glenda Kruss (gkruss@hsrc.ac.za).
Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Survey
In 2017, CeSTII completed a research partnership in the Department of Science and Technology (now DSI), the National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO), and the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA).
The South African National Survey of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer in Publicly Funded Research Institutions: Inaugural Baseline Study (2008-2014) › was launched in April 2017.
“The survey helps to define, in practical terms, specific indicators that government and its stakeholders, including the broader community of technology transfer practitioners, can use to measure the capacity, outputs and targeted outcomes and ultimately impacts of publicly funded R&D,” wrote former science and technology minister, Naledi Pandor, in the preface to the report.
The IP&TT survey aimed to establish baseline indicators to track overall activity in Intellectual Property (IP) management and Technology Transfer (TT). Questionnaires were sent to all institutions defined in the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act (IPR Act), comprising 23 higher education institutions and the 10 science councils.
Valid responses were obtained from 24 institutions. Of these, 23 indicated that they have either established a dedicated office of technology transfer (OTT), have dedicated TT individuals or are members of a regional office. Management of technologies, patent families, trademark families, registered design families and new patent applications filed increased more rapidly than the increase in research expenditure, which indicated an acceleration of these activities relative to research expenditure.
On average, 100 new technologies were added annually between 2011 and 2014 to the portfolio managed by respondent institutions. There was a quadrupling in the actual number of licences executed per year in the period. Of significance is that more than 88% of this revenue accrued consistently each year to the same four institutions with well-established TTFs.
The majority of IP transactions yielded less than R100 000 per year. In total, 45 start-up companies were formed over the period to commercialise the institutions’ technology, 73% of which were based on publicly funded IP.
Go to aggregate survey data set
Scholarship
African Innovation Outlook
The African Innovation Outlook project was launched as a series aimed at publishing STI indicators in Africa. Researchers from the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII) contributed to African Innovation Outlook II and III.
African Innovation Outlook presents the results of R&D and innovation surveys and bibliometric studies as well as information on the status of STI policies and strategies for African countries.