Water Wheel March/April 2023: Upfront

Abstract

NEWS Government remains main funder of research in South Africa The government sector (including science councils and universities’ own funds) contributed 56.3% of R&D funding in the country, while business contributed 26.9%, foreign funding 13.3% and other South African sources 3.5%. Higher education and the science councils are the main beneficiaries of government funding. The R&D survey is undertaken annually by the Human Science Research Council on behalf of the Department of Science and Innovation. The resulting statistics provide important evidence on the size, growth and composition of R&D expenditure and human resources devoted to R&D. Gross domestic expenditure on research and development (GERD) for 2020/21 was R33.541 billion. GERD as a percentage of gross domestic product was 0.61%. Medical and health sciences account for the majority of R&D expenditure (22.1%), followed by social sciences (19.7%) and engineering sciences (12.9%). Research in environment-related areas showed gains along with space science research.

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