South Africa sees boost in R&D spending

Source: Pexels

This is according to the results of the South African R&D Survey for the period 2022/23.

The proportion of R&D expenditure to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was unchanged at 0.61%.

“South Africa’s economy grew at a comparable 1.9% in 2022, so this is why the ratio of R&D to GDP, a measure of the research intensity of the South African economy, is static,” said the HSRC’s Nazeem Mustapha, who led the research.

“But we are seeing improvements in business R&D expenditure, which should be encouraging for policymakers and investors.”

The survey report, prepared by the HSRC’s Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII), updates key national longitudinal data on R&D expenditure and personnel.

R&D spending rises

The business sector increased its R&D expenditure in 2022/23 by almost R1bn (R950m), from R13.527bn in 2021/22 to R14.507bn in 2022/23.

This is attributed to higher R&D spending in manufacturing and mining, according to the survey’s statistical report, which disaggregates spending data by standard industrial classification.

Nominal expenditure increased in all institutional sectors covered by the survey, including the government, higher education institutions, non-profit organisations, and science councils.

The key funders of R&D in South Africa in 2022/23 were the government (R20.664bn), businesses (R11.754bn), and foreign sources (R7.060bn).

The country’s headcount of researchers fell from 63,122 in 2021/22 to 61,457 in 2022/23.

The proportion of female researchers to total researchers increased marginally from 47% in 2021/22 to 47.6% in 2022/23.

The South African R&D Survey is conducted annually.

“Survey data provides a key signal to policy actors about where the strengths and weaknesses are in the South African national system of innovation,” said CeSTII’s executive head, Glenda Kruss.

“A positive about the results is that we are starting to see a reversal of the drop in R&D spending that we observed in 2019/20, even before the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on R&D performers were reported.”