The outcome of the ANCs long-awaited KwaZulu-Natal conference was a win for the Thuma Mina crowd. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
The Academy of Science of South Africa launched a report providing insights on South Africa’s participation in the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) of the European Union (EU) on December 7 2015.
With a budget of over €50-billion over seven years, the FP7 has drawn some of the largest funding for scientific research in the world.
Launched on the sidelines of Science Forum South Africa, the report Insights into South Africa’s Participation in the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development of the European Commission was completed in collaboration with the department of science and technology (DST).
Three data sources were used: information in the Community Research and Development Information Service database for 122 FP7 projects that involved South African participation; a focus group with officials from the DST; and two web surveys involving South African participants and international co-ordinators in FP7 projects.
The DST’s strategic intent in its engagement with the EU, as well as its preference for equally beneficial partnerships were highlighted. Alignment between the national priorities and the 122 FP7 projects were also explored.
Subject categories of the FP7 projects reveal a strong focus on co-ordination of scientific research, and also medicine and health.
Projects with a focus on health are connected to veterinary and animal sciences and agricultural biotechnology. The latter concentration, apart from supporting the grand challenge of “farmer to pharma”, also speaks to a number of technological missions that fall under the innovation pillar in the National Research and Development Strategy, most notably biotechnology and technology for poverty reduction. Space science, energy security and information and communication technology are also present.
South Africa’s participation in FP7 also resulted from several factors. First is its expertise in a particular area of interest. Second, established networks and collaborations create a situation whereby South African researchers are almost automatically drawn into the collaborative activities of the parties in their field. A third theme is that of South Africa and the rest of Africa being included in FP7 to strengthen the global character of a project.
Recommendations of the report range from capacity building to strengthening support to South African researchers, and addressing project management challenges to dissemination of the research project outputs.
It was also observed that the alignment between FP7 projects and the country’s national STI (science, technology and innovation) priorities appears to be best when DST co-funding is involved, not [only] because of the additional funding but because of the project scrutiny that occurs as part of the process of approval.