A unique research and innovation partnership celebrates three decades
By Paul Dufour, Michael Kahn
Paul Dufour is senior fellow at the Institute for Science, Society and Policy at the University of Ottawa, and principal of PaulicyWorks, and Michael Kahn is research fellow at CREST-SciSTIP Stellenbosch University.
A joint Canada-South Africa memorandum of understanding on science, technology, and innovation co-operation was recently renewed in Ottawa, with delegations from the two countries advancing the co-operation with leadership from Innovation, Science and Economic Development and the South African Department of Science and Innovation.
The forthcoming G7 and G20 Summits to be hosted in 2025 by Canada and South Africa respectively offer a unique opportunity to cement key areas of the joint partnership.
Almost 30 years ago, with support from Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the authors were part of a team in Cape Town tasked to map out a science and innovation policy for the new South Africa.
South Africa’s 1994 democratic elections had brought Nelson Mandela to the presidency. His government administration duly created the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. The new ministry then embarked on a stakeholder-based policy formulation process that led to public consultations to frame a green paper on science and technology, then to a white paper on arts and culture, as well as a white paper on science and technology.
In supporting these initiatives, several bilateral missions between the two countries contributed new thinking on the management of R&D and innovation leading to the adoption of the innovation systems approach. This shift was explicitly built upon the twin concepts of “innovation” and a “national system of innovation.” The South African approach scoped the role of government in policy formulation and regulation, funding, research and innovation promotion, technology transfer, correcting market failure, foresight and forecasting methods for priority setting.
With various statements and other initiatives examining new directions in Canada’s foreign policy, the bilateral efforts to strengthen co-operation between Canada and South Africa began earnestly in the early 2000s. The positive working relationship between Canadian and South African policy makers and scientists gave impetus to initiatives with lasting impacts.
Among them were the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, and the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators.
In addition, the successful Canadian experience in establishing its own Canada Research Chairs Program led to a 2006 South African Research Chairs Initiative to attract and retain excellence in research and innovation at her public universities.
More recently, the South African National Research Foundation entered into an agreement with Canada’s Mitacs to kick-start the implementation of the National Research Foundation Industry Partnership Strategy and leverage additional resources while promoting graduate upskilling in industry settings. Building on new initiatives, the bilateral partnership can also explore important opportunities between the two countries that have been outlined through the 2023 South African-Canada Universities Network Summit in Ottawa and Toronto.
The newest figures available for the number of publications in selected areas between South Africa and Canada indicate that medicine is the most prominent area on international co-publications, followed by astronomy, earth, and planetary sciences and agriculture. Other initiatives bringing together the research and talent expertise of the two countries include collaboration in nuclear medicine, radio astronomy (through the large-scale, international Square Kilometre Observatory project), agriculture, polar research, energy, oceans science, Indigenous knowledge, biomedicine, and vaccine development.
The Canada-South African knowledge partnership goes well beyond bilateral efforts. Canada and South Africa have played a strong role in helping shape a pan-African approach to other linkages. Indeed, in 2015 the IDRC — along with other donors — launched the Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI) as a response to gaps in the African science landscape, including using research to advance gender equality and benefit marginalized communities. IDRC and its partners now work with 17 African granting councils that have helped improve research governance in these countries.
The Canadian research councils have undertaken a large-scale, multinational project on climate change under their New Frontiers Research Fund program that includes South Africa as a key partner. This International Joint Initiative for Research in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation represents a collaboration among research funders from Brazil, Canada, Germany, South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States to leverage international expertise in tackling the global challenges caused by climate change.
In South Africa, a new governance system is evolving through the establishment of the Science, Technology and Innovation Presidential Plenary and the Science, Technology and Innovation Inter-Ministerial Committee. The DSTI and National Advisory Council on Innovation support these structures.
In Canada, a recently announced plan for a capstone organization bringing together the efforts of the research granting councils, as well as an advisory Council for Science and Innovation, offer an opportunity to bring these organizations together that could mount a well-focused complementarity study in the growing partnership. A recent discussion paper commissioned by ISED and the DSTI have fleshed out some of the background and forward look for this relationship.
As the Canadian government outlines its African foreign policy and prepares for the G7 Summit in Kananaskis, Alta., and the new South African National Unity administration gears up for hosting the 2025 G20 Summit, an opportunity is emerging to strengthen our respective science, technology, and innovation bonds.
Indeed, as a more strategic approach to shape this evolving collaboration is contemplated under a forthcoming Canadian foreign policy reset with Africa, and the newly signed joint memorandum between the two countries, there is a key opportunity to build on the critical role of science diplomacy with enhanced research collaboration.
Today, Canada and South Africa are certainly well-poised to grow the existing international collaboration enhanced research and innovation partnerships.
Article originally published on 23 December 2024 in The Hill Times.