Programme Director, Ms. Remofilwe Setshedi;
Director-General of the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Mlungisi Cele;
Deputy Directors-General of the DSTI;
Members of the NRF Board;
Acting-CEO of the NRF;
The Executive of the NRF;
Heads of our public Science and Academic Institutions;
The CEO of NRF Kenya;
CEO and Directors of HERI;
CEO of the Commission for University Education-Kenya;
Principal Secretaries of Higher Education and Science Research and Innovation- Kenya;
Most importantly, our 41 newly appointed SARChI Chairholders:
There is absolutely no question that today is a profoundly historic moment for South Africa’s National System of Innovation (NSI). A moment that holds immeasurable significance for our Department’s strategic goal of ensuring that we build a transformed and socially responsive National System of Innovation.
Today we are officially launching 41 new Research Chairs under the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI). It pleases me to state that these Research Chairs have been deliberately awarded to our Historically Disadvantaged Institutions (HDIs), Universities of Technology (UoTs), and our new universities such as Sol Plaatje University, which is being awarded a Research Chair for the first time in its history.
Given the stature of today’s event, I wish to reflect on several issues which I believe are important for the advancement of our country’s science, technology, and innovation agenda. The first is the global context within which we are holding this event.
We are launching these Research Chairs against a backdrop of a profoundly unpredictable geopolitical and economic environment which is characterised by the persistence of global inequality, food insecurity, the growing threat of pandemics, climate change and environmental calamities, the impact of disruptive technologies.
Even more disturbing is the growing shift towards a blatant disregard for international law and multilateralism and the use of science and in particular emerging technologies such as AI to commit some of the most unspeakable human rights violations, including what is called epistemicide or scholasticide.
The of these Research Chairs also takes place a few weeks after the release of our 2025 Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) Indicators Report by our entity, the National Advisory Council on Innovation (NACI). There is general agreement that this Report provides us with a sobering and useful diagnostic on the performance of our country’s National System of Innovation.
For instance, it observes that, while we have seen remarkable strides—such as female representation among academic staff rising to 52% and Black South African academic staff increasing to 62%—we are also facing significant headwinds.
It further observes that our Gross Expenditure on R&D (GERD) as a percentage of GDP has declined to 0.61% (from 0.67% before COVID) - a far cry from our national target of 1.5% by 2030. This decline is largely driven by a reduction in business sector investment and threatens our global competitiveness and our ability to industrialise.
It is therefore our expectation that the Research Chairs that we are unveiling here today must help us to develop coherent responses to these and other observations that are made by our latest STI Indicators Report.
This is why the Research Chairs that are being awarded today are consciously aligned to the priority areas of our Decadal Plan for Science, Technology and Innovation (2022-2032).
The second issue I wish to reflect on is the strategic intent of the Research Chairs initiative. Since inception in 2006, the Research Chairs initiative has been our principal instrument for strategic human resources development.
To date, we have awarded a total of 331 Research Chairs, with over 200 currently operational. These Chairs have been instrumental in moving the needle on our PhD production- helping us reach a point where 52.5% of our permanent academic staff now hold doctoral degrees.
As you may be aware, historically, Research Chairs were concentrated at a handful of research-intensive and mainly previously advantaged universities. Today’s event signals a deliberate change of this disparity. By awarding 32 of these 41 chairs to Black researchers, we are not just changing who does research; we are also changing where that research is done and for whom.
Furthermore, in establishing the Research Chairs, we have also recognised what we call a persistent "Innovation Paradox": while we produce excellent research, we are also seeing a decline in patent registrations—from 36.3 per million people in 2022 to just 18.6 in 2023.
Our system is excellent at generating knowledge, but we are still not necessarily commercialising at the desired scale. We therefore view the awarding of these 41 Research Chairs as part of our response to this paradox.
The third and final issue I wish to reflect on are some of the strategic tasks of the new Chairholders. While our traditional universities may focus on discovery-led research, as stated, these new Research Chairs are specifically aligned to the Societal Grand Challenges and priorities of our Decadal Plan.
So, whether you are researching Just Energy Transition, Green Hydrogen, or Data Science, your work must be socially responsive. Your research must provide evidence-based solutions for food security, water sanitation, and energy challenges in the communities that surround your campuses.
This brings me to the vital role of the Communities of Practice (CoP). We are no longer funding siloes. We expect our Chairholders to work together to solve the "wicked problems" of our era-structural poverty, spatial segregation, and the impacts of climate change.
Important as publishing in journals may be, as the Minister of Science, Technology, and Innovation, I am tired of seeing research that only ends up in journal articles, but never reaches a rural clinic, a local farm or translates into an innovation.
Our 2025 STI Indicators Report shows that while our publications receive more citations than the global average, we are importing ten times more intellectual property than we are exporting. We must use these Communities of Practice to resolve this conundrum.
We also recognise the immense pressure faced by some of our universities regarding the supervisory pipeline. Our new universities often have modern infrastructure but lack a deep well of experienced supervisors found in older institutions. This is why we are advocating for a "Cluster Chair" model.
We want to see our Tier 1 Chairs at established universities formally mentoring early-career researchers at Sol Plaatje University and the University of Mpumalanga. Our National System of Innovation must function as a single and integrated organism.
For example, if one institution lacks supervisory capacity, the system must provide it. This is how we will reach our target of 5,000 PhD graduates per year while ensuring that our graduates are not just degree holders but are also empowered to innovate, create job creators, and build their own businesses.
Furthermore, we must address the financial resilience of our research system. With the decline in GERD, our universities must become more adept at securing "third-stream" income. I am calling on all our Vice Chancellors here to adopt the indirect cost recovery tools championed by our partners.
We cannot continue to allow international grants to place a hidden burden on the South African fiscus by under-recovering operational costs. By accurately costing our research, we protect our national budget and ensure that the R3 million annual investment we make in each Tier 1 chair yields a sustainable, long-term return for the taxpayer.
We also expect our Vice Chancellors research to help us ensure that our research agenda as a country and continent is sovereign and not entirely donor driven. We value international partnerships and must make sure they are equitable and do not undermine our research and technological sovereignty.
It is also important to state that, as a Department we are not complacent about the role and impact of our Research Chairs and this is why we have commissioned a comprehensive impact evaluation of the SARChI programme, from its inception to the present day.
We want to know exactly how this investment has touched the lives of women, youth, and those in our most disadvantaged communities. Furthermore, while we value hosting and having exchange programmes between South Africa and other countries on the continent, it is equally important for us to ensure that the majority of Masters and PhD students we support and produce through initiatives such as Research Chairs must be South Africans.
In conclusion, as stated, our expectation for these new 41 Research Chairs is to help us enhance the research capacity of our historically disadvantaged institutions, Universities of Technologies and new universities. We also expect them to be deliberate about the development and mentoring of young, black and women researchers.
Most importantly, you have a duty to ensure that the knowledge that is produced by our public universities enables our strategic mission of placing science, technology, and innovation at the centre of government, education, industry, and society. Congratulations to all our new Research Chairholders. I wish you well as you undertake this significant role.
