South Africa's R&D private sector receive EU boost

South Africa's R&D private sector is set to benefit from a newly signed agreement with the Eurostars programme of the European Commission (EC) also supported by the  EUREKA programme.

South Africa’s agreement with Eurostars paves the way for much needed funding and support to companies  involved in intensive research, development and innovation in the country.

The Eurostars programme will assist the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to attain its target of increasing the number of South African and European  companies jointly implementing projects and participating in the European Union (EU) funding research programmes. The DST will be providing co-investment towards SA participants in successful Eurostars projects.

With its bottom-up approach, Eurostars supports the development of rapidly marketable innovative products, processes and services that help improve the lives of people around the world.

The programme has been carefully developed to meet the specific needs of the private sector and is an ideal first step in international cooperation, enabling small businesses to combine and share expertise and benefit from working beyond national borders.

The Eurostars programme is aimed at promoting and supporting the participation of R&D performing companies in transnational research with a strong focus on job creation, economic growth and competiveness. The programme contributes to the Horizon 2020 (H2020) goal of accelerating the development of technologies and innovations that will underpin future businesses and strengthen EU innovative SMEs to world-leading companies.

Eurostars is a joint programme co-funded by EUREKA and the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Programme. EUREKA is anetwork for developing cooperation between SMEs, research centres and universities for industrial innovation.

The DST will implement this agreement with the involvement of key entities such as the Technology Innovation Agency, and the Council for Industrial and Scientific Research.

The programme supports projects for a maximum duration of three years, with the research outputs ready for commercialisation within two years after the project has been completed. As a member country, South Africa will also get an opportunity to nominate up to five candidates to evaluate the projects.