Science, Technology and Innovation Minister, Professor Blade Nzimande has appointed a 12-member team or Working Group on Science, Technology, and Innovation Funding (STI-WG) to assess the impact of the US administration’s decision to withdraw funding South Africa’s key research and development programmes.
The aim of the working group is to advise the minister on the implications and impact of the decision and to analyse the current geo-political risks related to STI and how South Africa must position itself to deal with the current situation.
Speaking on YOU FM Newshour, Nzimande said that he appointed the group because what currently exists is anecdotal and few people have raised these matters with him as well as with some few universities.
“I am establishing this working group precisely to calculate to the last cent as to what is the impact financially to begin with and otherwise of the redirection or the withdrawal of funds from the United States. For example, the HIV/AIDS programme which has been supported by the US has not only just been supporting provision of ARVs, testing and all that but also there’s been research programmes behind that. As South Africa we’ve been doing ongoing research programmes in partnership with our partners including the US on the possibilities of developing a vaccine or a cure or whatever a better treatment for those who are HIV positive,” said Nzimande.
In addition, the minister highlighted that it’s not only health that is being impacted by the decision, but also the research sector that covers a wide range of areas.
“The department started doing some work immediately President Trump started making this announcement. But as we did this initial work, we realised we need to constitute a working group made up of people who are knowledgeable or who are being impacted hence the way I have composed my team. Its Vice-Chancellors because some of our universities have been beneficiaries,” explained the minister.
Nzimande said the group includes the National Research Foundation, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, the Human Sciences Research Council, which he said were included to enable him to engage with the research sector.
Team has 40-days from the day of its establishment to produce a preliminary report and eventually a final comprehensive report by the end of June.
“I am concerned, but I am not panicking though, and I have given them a fairly short time. I said to them I would like to get a report a month from now, a preliminary but then definitely by the end of June I want a final report. Because we want to focus on immediately what is the impact of the redirection of the funds from the US, but I would like them to do a bit more work than that,” Nzimande explained further.
The terms of reference of the group also include to analyse the current geo-political risks related to STI and how South Africa should position itself to deal with the current situation, secondly to propose policy and strategic responses to enhance the long-term security and sustainability of the STI system and the role of the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI) members of the Working Group.
