South Africa needs more research and development (R&D). This is what makes the figures from the latest annual R&D survey, conducted by the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators at the Human Sciences Research Council, disappointing.
The country has once again failed to meet its ambitious R&D targets, with the percentage of gross domestic product spend on R&D stagnating at 0.76%. This puts total R&D spend for 2012-2013 at about R24-billion.
