In 2002, the Department of Science and
Technology (DST) published South Africa’s National Research and Development Strategy2
. Despite the comprehensive
background on the value of a coherent National System of Innovation, this strategy was intended to provide ‘a way forward for publicly funded science and technology and for creating an enabling environment of the national system of innovation as a whole’. Essentially it is a motivation to reposition the science and technology base, stimulate new fields such as biotechnology, grow the human resources and increase government’s investment in R&D.
While described as a strategy and not a
policy, it contains aspects which have a direct impact on the future of the SANSI. Firstly, it describes a ‘framework for the new plan’, indicating how growing R&D capacity leads to R&D impacts on economic growth and quality
of life. Essentially, this reflects the
technology push model of innovation, which then became further embedded in the South African approach. It also goes on to define the key indicators for performance of the S&T system at the macro-level, which are then stated as the ‘basis for long-term planning for the NSI and its key functions’. There is a tacit assumption in this picture, viz. the growth of R&D that will have a direct link to innovation, often portrayed with data from developed countries where such a correlation is perceived to exist. This correlation is now admitted to not necessarily be direct, but have only one element and may not be an adequate proxy for the drivers of innovation, particularly developing countries.
The strategy then introduces the now well- known diagram of the ‘Innovation Chasm’, as shown below. This concept has captivated the research community and institutions in trying to find solutions, and has dominated discussions of innovation in South Africa for a decade, without resolution. Few have challenged the model especially in the changed context of a globalised and connected world, and this chasm remains an apparently fundamental barrier to progress in South African thinking. The time has come to change the picture.
Finally, year Innovation Plan’3
in 2009, DST published the ‘Ten- , which is intended
to ‘chart the course for growth in science, technology and innovation, and shows how we can optimally employ these for greater prosperity of society and to improve the quality of life of all southern Africans’.
The overall purpose is to help drive South Africa’s transformation towards a knowledge- based economy. The major thrust, aside
“INNOVATION IS DRIVEN BY
NOVELTY, CO-CREATION AND COLLABORATION. WITHOUT A SUPPORTIVE ECOSYSTEM AND LEADING THROUGH FACILITATION, IT WILL BE DIFFICULT TO SEE PROGRESS”
The Innovation Journal September 2012 | Management Today 19
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