Pretoria, Thursday, 28 November 2024 – Gross domestic expenditure on R&D in South Africa, in real terms, grew to R28.282 billion in 2022/23, a 2.1 per cent year-on-year increase from R27.712 billion in 2021/22.

However, according to the results of the South African R&D Survey for the period 2022/23, the proportion of R&D expenditure to gross domestic product was unchanged at 0.61%.

“South Africa’s economy grew at a comparable 1.9 per cent in 2022, so this is why the ratio of R&D to GDP, a measure of the research intensity of the South African economy, is static,” says the HSRC’s Dr Nazeem Mustapha, who led the South African R&D Survey.

“But we are seeing improvements in business R&D expenditure, which should be encouraging for policymakers and investors.”

The survey report, prepared for the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation by the HSRC’s Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII), updates key national longitudinal data on R&D expenditure and personnel.

Business R&D expenditure increases for second year

The business sector increased its R&D expenditure in 2022/23 by almost one billion Rand (R950 million), from R13,527 billion in 2021/22 to R14,507 billion in 2022/23.

This is attributed to higher R&D spending in manufacturing and mining, according to the survey’s statistical report, which disaggregates spending data by standard industrial classification.

Nominal expenditure increased in all institutional sectors covered by the survey, including the government, higher education institutions, non-profit organisations, and science councils.

The key funders of R&D in South Africa in 2022/23 were the government (R20,664 billion), businesses (R11,754 billion) and foreign sources (R7,060 billion).

The country’s headcount of researchers fell from 63 122 in 2021/22 to 61 457 in 2022/23. The proportion of female researchers to total researchers increased marginally from 47% in 2021/22 to 47.6% in 2022/23. 

The South African R&D Survey is conducted annually.

“Survey data provide a key signal to policy actors about where the strengths and weaknesses are in the South African national system of innovation,” says Dr Glenda Kruss, CeSTII’s executive head.

“A positive about the results is that we are starting to see a reversal of the drop in R&D spending that we observed in 2019/20, even before the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on R&D performers were reported.”

Click here to access the results of the 2022/23 South African R&D Survey.

ENDS.

For media enquiries:

Dr Lucky Ditaunyane, Cell: +27 83 227 6074 Email: lditaunyane@hsrc.ac.za

Adziliwi Nematandani, Cell: +27 82 765 9191 Email: anematandani@hsrc.ac.za

Join the conversation:

#R&DSurvey

Notes to the Editor

About the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC)

The HSRC was established in 1968 as South Africa’s statutory research agency and has grown to become the largest dedicated research institute in the social sciences and humanities on the African continent, doing cutting-edge public research in areas that are crucial to development.

Our mandate is to inform the effective formulation and monitoring of government policy; to evaluate policy implementation; to stimulate public debate through the effective dissemination of research-based data and fact-based research results; to foster research collaboration; and to help build research capacity and infrastructure for the human sciences.

The Council conducts large-scale, policy-relevant, social-scientific research for public sector users, non-governmental organisations and international development agencies. Research activities and structures are closely aligned with South Africa’s national development priorities.