By the time most people read this opinion piece, the main campus of the biggest university on the African continent will already be a hive of scientific activity. Proceedings at this year’s Unisa Annual Research and Innovation gathering will be well underway.
For most people, this event might seem like some run-of-the-mill powwow of academics, discussing scientific and academic issues of interest to them; and to them only. Yet nothing could be further from the truth.
The reality is that this august gathering deservedly holds its own among many such initiatives of national importance. It brings together local and international experts and thought leaders to share perspectives and expert knowledge on issues that affect humanity; and that bring unique insights to achieving excellence, innovation and leadership in research.
The leap from resource-based to knowledge-based economies, particularly in developing countries like South Africa, is widely acknowledged as a vital cog in the pursuit of economic growth and global market competitiveness and the concomitant achievement of a better life for all.
Here at home, the clarion call by our government for institutions of higher learning and research institutions and individuals to play an active and leading role in this drive is well documented. Various national laws and policy prescripts in higher education, science and technology and lately, the National Development Plan, are all succinct on the centrality of a knowledge economy in helping the country accelerate the industrialisation process and decrease its reliance on resource exports.
The National Development Plan, which is expected to anchor the state’s transformative vision for the next seventeen years, has correctly recognised higher education as a “major driver of the information or knowledge system, linking it with economic development”. And again rightly so, it states that universities are key to national development as they are “the dominant producers of new knowledge, and they critique information and find new local and global applications for existing knowledge”.
Perhaps, the statement made by Public Enterprises Minister Malusi Gigaba when delivering a lecture at Unisa recently sums up government’s position on the question of research and innovation; and probably its clarion call for much-needed intervention. Minister Gigaba raised the concern that “innovation is identified as a driver for economic growth and productivity and yet innovation capacity remains low in most African countries”.
It is within this context that our Research and Innovation Week takes place; providing a platform for our local knowledge workers to interact amongst themselves; and with their international peers. In this way, existing knowledge is enriched at one level; while at another, others get inspired to create new knowledge.
We share the view that this country needs more researchers and innovators; and that, as a leading institution of higher learning, we have a duty to play a formidable role in national and continental efforts to right the anomaly raised by the minister.
After all, the National Development Plan places a huge responsibility on higher education institutions to expand the production of highly skilled professionals and enhance the innovative capacity of the nation.
In the same breath, it is critical to magnify the point that our research week is not a mere maverick activity by purposeless intellectuals. On the contrary, there is always a deliberate effort on our part to ensure that the issues at hand, and their desired outcomes, are intertwined with national priorities such as education, health, energy, water, economic development, crime, unemployment and poverty alleviation.
Equally so, we endeavour at all times to emerge from the deliberations with concrete, practical and visible outcomes. As an illustration, the registration of a patent for a water purification invention, the first to be registered by Unisa in its 140 years of existence, was not a scientific accident, but the brainchild of an interaction that happened at this very event between the scientists concerned, who discovered during the sessions that they have a common and shared interest in water research.
This, I believe, is a perfect example of how, through interactive sessions of this nature, we are able to create an ideal platform for a meeting of great minds; whose final product can be beneficial not only to the intellectuals themselves and broader academia, but to the country and the world as a whole.
It is also a contribution, small yet impactful, towards efforts to grow our science and innovation capacity as a country which, at the moment, is rather small by international standards.
We at Unisa, through the portfolio responsible for research and innovation, which I lead, are determined to ensure that we fulfil our primary responsibility of providing leadership in research and innovation which contributes meaningfully to knowledge production that impacts on technology, industry and society.
Equally so, our annual recognition of the chosen achievers in research and innovation at a gala awards ceremony is not intended to only recognise these shining stars and to positively reinforce their excellent performance, but to also serve as inspiration to new and aspirant researchers.
Beyond the research week, we will ensure that we use our flagship research projects, including but not limited to our Fog Harvesting Project in the Eastern Cape as well as our recent acquisition of the UNESCO Africa Chair in Nanosciences and Nanotechnology, the NRF-approved Chair on Social Policy and the Family and others to make a positive impact on society.
We equally urge our research peers and counterparts across the length and breadth of our country and the continent to embark on similar conversations, if not better.
It is my considered view that only through dialogue, knowledge sharing and subsequent practical application can our country and the continent prosper; and thus be able to participate meaningfully and with confidence in global socio-economic activity.
We owe this to future generations.
* Written by Prof Mamokgethi Phakeng, Vice-Principal: Research and Innovation at Unisa
** This opinion piece was also published in the Pretoria News on 11 March 2013
