Industry—Academic—Government Cooperation in Technological Innovation and Human Resource Development

Abstract

An overview is provided of the vision for a national system of innovation (NSI) in South Africa. A feature of the South African NSI is that while science output is relatively high, technology output is relatively low. This suggests the potential gain to be had from closer linkage between higher education and the business sector. The paper also contains a perspective on the status of cooperative research in the natural sciences, engineering and technology (SET) in the development of South Africa. The existing government-level technological innovation programmes are briefly described, with special attention given to the Technology and Human Resources for Industry Programme (THRIP). The latter initiative is described as a consortium programme involving all key stakeholders in technology promotion in South Africa. THRIP is critically reviewed and its expanded vision contextualized within the NSI. Some new approaches and mechanisms are proposed to promote greater market focus within the research and technology push side of expertise development, as well as to promoting the involvement, ownership and long-term vision of the market for technology and human resources in research.

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A centre of excellence is viewed in this context as a group of experts within an institution or region, operating within a well-equipped research environment, which actively and in a multi-disciplinary fashion promotes the intellectual resource base within a priority field. A cooperative centre of excellence comprises several centres of excellence which work jointly towards a common goal of expertise development and capacity building, in a complementary way. For example, the petrochemical, plastics and synthetic fibres industry can typically develop and launch a concerted initiative to build a critical mass of expertise around a few selected areas in which the existence of indigenous core competencies are essential for competitiveness and growth. Typically, centres of excellence can be created to develop core competencies in catalysis research, separations technology, logistics and distribution, and energy systems. The cooperative centre of excellence can be viewed as the overarching activity with a common goal to develop the competitive and innovative human resource and technology base for the relevant industrial sector, through the various centres of excellence.

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