SA should consider closing some science councils
THE government has outlined new policy objectives around science, technology and innovation. These are in draft form and will soon appear in a new White Paper. The vision of the policy is the use of science and technology to drive the sustainable and inclusive development of South Africa.
The policy’s key objectives are improved partnerships between the public and private sectors as well as better coherence and coordination in government policy, especially between separate departments.
In addition to these objectives are ones for stronger and transformed institutions, improved financing for research and development (R&D), a higher quality of education and higher levels of innovation in the economy.
The proposed White Paper is a constructive and comprehensive document with several strong points. But, we argue, it doesn’t provide definitive and necessary leadership on two key issues.
The first relates to the development of people’s skills and abilities. The second issue is the under-performance of the science councils, also known as public research institutes.
There are seven councils which collectively consume 55% of government’s research budget.
Work recently completed for the National Treasury reveals that since the 2003, science councils have become expensive and often unproductive institutions.
The graph above shows the rising cost of research in various sectors, expressed as the ratio of expenditure to number of full-time equivalent researchers. This value is a good approximation of the unit cost for research. It is clear from the trend that in 2014 the science councils became the most expensive performers in the system, and are now almost three times the unit cost of universities.
The problem is that the model used to create these science councils is outdated. Today, universities fulfil many of the councils’ roles at a much lower cost and also add value by simultaneously training postgraduate students.
Our work suggests that closing under-performing science councils could achieve two important goals. First, the public budget for R&D will be enhanced because at least a portion of the R6 billion funding can be redirected to universities and the private sector. Second, the country’s ability to absorb new technologies and knowledge will be strengthened.
The analysis for National Treasury was done using the programme evaluation approach of Performance Expenditure Reviews. This was developed by the Department of Performance Monitoring and Evaluation in 2013 to assess the benefit/cost ratio of a number of publicly funded programmes. Since then, the reviews have been applied to many provincial and national initiatives.
The Treasury review involved benchmarking the public-funded R&D system. The findings suggested that the science councils are unproductive and need to be either closed or their resources redirected.
The review showed the benefit/ cost ratio was 0.26 for the councils relative to 1.44 for the universities. In other words, for every rand of R&D expenditure the combined value of all the publications, patents, new ventures, income from intellectual property, research degrees conferred and contract research income amounted to 26 cents for the science councils and 144 cents for the universities.
Apart from the productivity benefit – greater output at a lower cost – the use of universities to meet the government’s needs for new knowledge has two other strong points in their favour. Universities develop muchneeded skilled human resources and strengthen the country’s ability to absorb new technologies and hence drive innovation.
Science councils don’t play a strong enough role in human resource development and have become ineffective in stimulating innovation.
South Africa has set ambitious targets for R&D expenditure. However, increases in public funding are unlikely given constraints on tax revenues and fiscal pressure to increase support for public enterprises, the social wage and education. The country needs more value from its expenditure. The closure of inefficient institutions that are not showing good returns on spending will be a useful place to start.
The role of public research institutions like science councils in national innovation systems has been diminishing in most developed countries. More funds are being directed to universities and directly to R&D activities of the private sector in the form of grants and subsidies. | Walwyn is a professor of technology management at the University of Pretoria and Cloete is a PhD candidate at the University of Pretoria.