NRF, SANSA, ASSAf & TIA 2020/21 Annual Performance Plans

Meeting report

National Research Foundation (NRF) Strategic and Annual Performance Plan
Mr Molapo Qhobelo, NFR CEO, said NFR has been pushing hard for researcher support, particularly black researchers. Hopefully over the five-year target the ratio will be increased from 33% to 48%.

The NRF’s planned performance per outcome was outlined according to researcher enterprise, science engagement; research agenda; Post Graduate Funding Policy; and other programmes.

As for resource allocation, 75% of the budget is pre-determined through the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and other contractual obligations, whilst 25% is discretionary. The government grant as approved by Parliament is set to increase on average by 3.7% over the MTEF but equates to a decrease of about 1.8%. The income trend numbers would have to be adjusted due to the Covid-19 impact. NFR anticipates that its funding may be significantly impacted and perhaps decreased. The contract with the Department is currently under review.

The CEO spoke on the principles informing the budget cuts and impact on its Annual Performance Plan and initiatives – the budget cuts will not impact on active graduate internships; postgraduate student bursaries; fellowships and early career researchers. The cuts will also not affect mission critical projects and initiatives to ensure the continued operations of the NRF and the sustainability of the research enterprise. The NRF Board will be kept abreast of the new budget adjustments.

Covid-19 has impacted support for postgraduate students and researchers due to the amendment of submission dates for applications, proposals and reports from postgraduate students and researchers. NRF will consider requesting extension of time for completion by honours, and final year master and doctoral students in consultation with their host institutions.

From a science perspective, NRF was currently working with the South Africa Science Journalists Association to support 26 science journalist interns in their coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic in various SA languages. NRF has also published Science Matters booklet information that has been utilised by various institutions within government.

South African National Space Agency (SANSA) Strategic and Annual Performance Plan
Dr Valanathan Munsami, SANSA CEO, reported that it was important to inform the Committee that if at this moment all satellites would be knocked out, internet connectivity would not be possible. Television sets as well as ATM transactions would not work as even the time stamps on ATM transactions come from satellites. He went on to speak about the importance of satellite connection.

Human settlements work uses satellites maps as well as the deployment of social health care workers to understand population density in the areas workers are deployed to.

As for financial sustainability, SANSA has the inability to fully meet its mandate, especially global navigation satellite services and satellite telecommunications solutions and applications. There is limited support to the local space industry, as per SANSA’s mandate, and there is nothing much that it can do. As an implementing agency, SANSA’s salary bill accounts for its major costs.

In its strategic approach in the next five years, SANSA is taking a much stricter approach to its products and services and financial sustainability on the African continent. Leadership will be provided to ensure that SANSA unlock opportunities and partnerships. South Africa is the only African country with a base in Antarctica as well as space weather centre which is the only one of its kind.

As for financial requirements, total funding required over the next five years is R700 million.

Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) Strategic and Annual Performance Plan
Prof Himla Soodyall, ASSAf Director, presented the Strategic Plan (2020/21 - 2025) and outlined the different programmes, outcomes, objectives and impact. The outcomes included science management, scholarship support and advancing women in science, amongst others. Consideration has been given in applying the transformation plan. She outlined the transformation strategy as well as the principles in which those are based.

As for financial activities, the available information speaks to the next three financial years. The budget talks to the sources of funding totalling R41 million; the allocation of these resources outlined the governance and administration programme is responsible for all governance related activities guided by the Council.

The science engagement and strategic partnership programme entails the hosting of the South African young scientist, science diplomacy, hosting of various science events and activities and overseas collaborations. Some of the activities relate to broad perspectives such poverty alleviation, health and climate change.

In continual guidance with the DSI, the team was informed that National Treasury would embark on budget cuts. Therefore, the budget would be cut by a little over R2 million due to the impact of Covid-19 on the fiscus. This will exacerbate the challenges but the current situation that the country is facing calls for such measures.

Prof Jonathan Jansen, ASSAf President, concluded that they put out an important statement yesterday to speak on the issues of evidence and advise government. The issue is the core on government to extend the expertise of science in the country to include social sciences to speak to the issue of Covid-19.

Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) Annual Performance Plan
Mr Butana Mboniswa, TIA Interim Board Chairperson, indicated that the matter of the Interim CEO was receiving attention and the contract will be expiring soon.

Mr Patrick Krappie, Acting General Manager and Executive Manager of Strategic Engagements and Corporate Relations, went through the Strategic Plan and noted TIA's initiatives. The challenges and context in which the planning was done, in 2009 TIA was established at a difficult period. One of the core pillars of TIA was the commercialisation of innovations, delivering on the bio-economy strategy and enhancing support for SMMEs through technology stations.

As for the market segment, it is important to reflect on how the country has benefited from its resources. The strategic intent included increasing spending for publicly-funded research to 70%; scaling up the Seed Fund and intensifying its deployment; strengthening its partnership with National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO). DSI has consistently told TIA that it should not worry too much about sectors but rather concentrate on government priorities in directing its resources.

It was directing efforts to create new bio-based products to increase the bio-economy contribution to GDP, creation new enterprises and responding to Covid-19 challenges. TIA has been contributing to analysis and producing medication for Covid-19.  

The outcomes and outputs for the Annual Performance Plan as well as MTEF targets were noted.

The budget shows there will be no inflationary increase and total administration costs compared to the previous year were decreased by R15 million. Bio-economy is the biggest item on the budget, followed by technology stations. Total expenditure is about R650 million but the budget cut due to Covid-19 amounts to R42 million. Senior management was yet to present the adjusted budget to the Board and the impact of the adjustments.

In conclusion, part of the problem is there are a lot of programmes TIA is involved in with a limited budget.

Discussion
Ms N Mkhatshwa (ANC) said she was not pleased with the efficiency and effectiveness of the Microsoft Teams app as a tool to execute their duties.

She asked SANSA about its legacy plan in increasing those trained by SANSA for the continuation of its work. She asked SANSA for its space representation and the provision of the statistics if available.

She emphasized the importance of prioritising collaborations on the continent and globally. She was concerned that ASAAf demographics was presented as binary. More details ought to be provided as the Committee has made it clear that when it talks about demographics, it prefers a full details.

On the transformation plan for the South African Young Academy of Science (SAYAS), what are the demographics of the current membership?

Mr B Nodada (DA) said the country is facing a lot of fiscal challenges and DSI with is entities has surely done the most it can to contribute towards finding lasting solutions to the pandemic the country is facing. He asked a cross-cutting question about the level of funding required by the entities to support the work they do. A lot could have been done in the past year to support their programmes. Covid-29 will be a challenge for all entities in terms of getting the funding required to do their projects.

To ASSAf, in reference to slide 14 of the APP, what are the specific initiatives done by its membership and would making participation with ASAAf mandatory ensure the continued membership with ASAAf. What alternative funding sources have been considered by ASAAf during the prevailing funding constraints? Lastly, what can ASAAf do to assist in increasing the number of emerging researchers and lecturers that are actively publishing, particularly from the previously disadvantaged communities?

As for SANSA, what initiatives will be pursued to address some of its capacity challenges as indicated in the Annual Performance Plan. Does it have an infrastructure revitalisation plan and has this been fully costed in the current budget? One of its objectives is the completion of Weather Space Centre in 2022/23, is this a new development or an upgrade of an existing centre?

On the structural reform to enhance the work of the space operations programme, is this being considered and what are the possible implications of it?

Ms D Sibiya (ANC) asked TIA about its investment according to the geographical spread across the nine provinces. What is the plan for Northern Cape and Mpumalanga as this was not outlined. TIA states it has eight bio-economy strategy interns, does this talk to all provinces?

Ms B Bozzoli (DA) asked the NRF about the cost of increasing student grants and if it can afford it when it is struggling financially and considering the DSI 20% budget cut. On social science research infrastructure, she asked for an example of this as a social scientist herself, she did not comprehend what was meant by this.

Is there any Department response to the NRF’s complaints about its 75% fixed budget and NRF lacking strategic control of its budget.

The most worrying thing about the presentation was the DSI budget cut (from 20% to 21%), which is higher than the cuts to other institutions. Is the cut commensurate to what other departments will experience? The DSI has always experienced higher cuts than other departments. The idea of distributing the cut was not to take away from experienced scientists who are the backbone of our science enterprise. This was extremely worrying especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Government is currently depending on science to find a lasting solution for Covid-19.

TIA seems to be an institution in trouble; it has had many years going. It will also experience a cut of about 10%. It had problems with financial sustainability and it seems not to have done what it is meant to do, which is having technologies taken up in the market. It says that it will now depend on government taking it up and this really misses the point of technology innovation which stimulates the GDP and growth. The targets set were very low and in some ways the presentation was vague.

She enjoyed SANSA’s presentation and commended the delegation for its enthusiasm as well as ASAAf.

Ms J Mananiso (ANC) was rather concerned about ASAAf’s policy for science and science for society but on page 11, it shows that a lot of work needed to be done on human capital, systems and structures as well as resources. All these institutions need to focus on gender responsive plans and budgeting. There is a lack of clear plans on gender parity, equality and equity. Such improvements were greatly required in its strategic and annual performance plans.

Science and innovation is a common agenda, and all of these institutions were lacking effective advocacy about the work they do. She wanted to know about their database acquisition.

She was disappointed about TIA and found the presentation problematic. When is it going to be able to find solutions to all the challenges that it outlined in its presentation?

Mr T Letsie (ANC) asked NRF if it had any collaboration with the National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences in developing human capital. Is the research infrastructure for humanities and social sciences in collaboration with NIHSS? Is NRF currently funding students within the diaspora and what is the percentage?

On 14 May, the Minister told the Committee that only five universities were investing in Artificial Intelligence but none of the previously disadvantaged universities are included. What support is NRF providing to those previously disadvantaged universities to develop and expand on AI? How are the asylum seeker students treated for funding and do they even qualify for Covid-19 relief funding?

Mr Letsie said this Committee was meeting TIA for the third or fourth time. The last time TIA came before the Committee, Members agreed it should leave. There are no clear explanations on what happened to the CEO. Perhaps the Interim Board Chairperson may not be aware but questions were asked about the previous acting CEO regarding a tender TIA did not get. He asked about its audit status and its plans to address the challenges pointed out by the Auditor General.

Mr P Keetse (EFF) registered his dissatisfaction with the digital platform used to engage with departments. Members can all agree that they are disappointed about the NRF presentation. One expects that it is likely to excel more and do more than the other institutions, especially as it receives a bigger chunk of funding. Members are engaging right now. Every time entities come before the Committee they tend to compile their presentations based on Members’ previous questions. This is not acceptable because information tends to be skewed rather than the actual content that Members need to be informed on.

He questioned the effectiveness of the publications by all the entities, particularly their significance and efficacy. Those publications end up completely disregarded. Some of the entities boast about the number of articles that they write and publish but this is something that can be done by unfunded scientists.

He asked SANSA how far back it can go in terms of capturing graphic images.

He was uncertain if it was ASAAf’s view or the professor’s view when he said that it would be very risky for children to go back to school while the country is hit by the pandemic. Has ASAAf been engaged by the Department of Basic Education or by the Ministry on cancelling the academic year to save lives?

China is where it is today due to its effectiveness in innovation; thus, one would like to know if TIA was doing more on its advocacy work to emphasize the importance of innovation. TIA can play a very important role in fostering innovation. Innovation should be popularised, particularly by TIA.

The Chairperson said that the NRF did not elaborate adequately on its budget. The budget was too summarized and he asked about the allocation approved by Parliament and contracted income from DSI – what is the nature of this contracted income? If it comes from DSI, these sources come from one purse.

He was impressed with SANSA and commended its work. He wanted more information on space and aviation. Is the work being done going to be in competition with the South African Weather Service?

On TIA, the Committee met for its Annual Report and one would recall that there was no engagement for a variety of reasons such as the failure to capture the true state of affairs, the absence of the then Interim Chairperson who was permanently resident in Australia and the issue with the interim CEO. Our engagement with TIA has not been very smooth. The Committee was still engaging at the level of crisis management regarding TIA. The interim CEO’s contract is coming to an end, which means she is still driving this organisation but she did not come and account on its activities. When we met in March, the Committee asked TIA to fix the situation. The CEO issue is not yet resolved and in the APP there are still a lot of acting positions. There are a number of vacant positions. The Committee appreciates that the issue with the Chairperson has been resolved.

The Committee specifically requested that the CEO position was filled in order to start filling all the other vacant positions. It is frustrating to engage with an entity that is not taking Parliament’s directives.

He asked the ASAAF President to elaborate on his statement and the intention behind putting out such a statement. He wondered if there were no other platforms available to engage with government productively as opposed to putting out such media statements recklessly.

NFR response
Dr Nompumelelo Obokoh, NFR Board Chairperson, replied to the funding questions saying that the NFR board can only control 25% of the funding and the remainder is through the DSI (75%). This has been a challenge but there is a new model to resolve the NFR funding model. Engagements with DSI on this matter were active and the ratios will be reversed so that the NRF can do more on its mandate activities. Now only 25% will be under the DSI for programmes that it wants to see.

On the publications, as the country we are looking at how we can enhance the economy through knowledge. Through the publications, we hope that knowledge can be translated for innovative products and services that will be beneficial to the society.

Dr Clifford Nxomani, NRF Deputy CEO: National Research Infrastructure Platforms, replied about research infrastructure. They are looking at complementing the existing infrastructure and what constitutes research infrastructure within humanities and social sciences. We can scale that into a national level so that it provides a common language for resources and technology network like in Europe. We are looking at conceptualising new ones, such as establishing a research observatory on poverty in the country.

The NRF has been in conversation about constituting and defining research infrastructure with NIHSS.

Dr Phethiwe Matutu, NRF Group Executive: Strategy Planning and Partnerships, replied that the NRF supports humanities and social sciences at about 20% of its budget but the majority of those funds are at researcher level. The NRF is the major funder nationally on researchers.

Mr Bishen Singh, NRF CFO, indicated that the difference between the grant approved by Parliament and the DSI contract. The grant is to support fundamental operations of the NRF. The 75% of the funding is largely money that is appropriated to the DSI programmes. On the 21% matter, we were informed recently that there was a government-wide request that Treasury had issued a directive for 20% cuts on budgets. We were informed by the DSI on this matter not the Treasury. That 21% of the NRF is broken down against 10% of the parliamentary grant and that is the portion that affects the NRF directly.

The 20% of the funding is money coming from the DSI largely from its Programme 4 (Research Development and Support) which affects the number of contracts and activities that we have with the Department. These are monies that flow into the higher learning institutions through various projects. Hence, there will be some pass on of the impact into those institutions and it will affect the established scientist. However, we will try to protect those areas. We have certain grants we have not made awards on yet, we might postpone those into outer years. Where we have already made those awards and students are studying, their fees must be paid.

On the audit status, in the last three years we have achieved unqualified audits. We had technical issues with irregular expenditure but there were no monies lost. Having felt the heat of missing a clean audit in those years, we have no irregular expenditure for the current year and the books are closed.

For an adequate level of funding, NRF would need to double the current budget. We spend R1 billion for student support and we think that needs to be doubled. For research, we would need a R1 billion and for infrastructure, R1 billion – which means we would need to have our R4 billion budget doubled.

Dr Gansen Pillay, Deputy CEO: Research and Innovation Support and Advancement (RISA), replied that the established researchers are very useful. The budget cuts are monies that will not be utilised by the established researchers.

Mr Qhobela thanked the Committee for the engagement. The new funding policy for postgraduate students recognises the socio-economic backgrounds from which these students come. We need to ensure that support to those students was maintained. NRF will forward details to the Committee on the nature of its support provided to various institutions and the DSI contracts.

SANSA response
SANSA Board Chairperson, Ms Xoliswa Kakana, replied that SANSA was working on improving its public relations work to ensure that its reach was improved. It aimed to attract students to come into this space; this will require more work to be done on advocacy campaigns.

Mr Munsami replied that the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) sits on the same site as SANSA; in fact it sits on SANSA’s site. In some of the missions the entities share the antenna. Collaboration is not an issue but it might be an issue on structural reforms.

Ms Andiswa Mlisa, SANSA Managing Director: Earth Observation, replied that SANSA has a three tier approach in absorbing people for employment. It first considers absorbing those that it trains, especially those that were supported for qualifications as well as interns. This is dominated by youth. The second approach has a high absorption rate – this is the trained space scientists within the space industry. If there is success in the industry development plans, then a huge proportion of those trained in space science were employed within the industry. However, this will only come to fruition if there is long term continuously funded space missions.

In the third approach, SANSA realises that to claim global market share we need to look beyond employment such as promoting entrepreneurship. This is done through the national innovation challenges and those with brilliant ideas can be supported to further develop their ideas into products and set up their own companies and employ more space scientists. This is done in partnership with the DTI and TIA as well as other space industries.

The satellite imagery can go as far back as 50 years of data, but we realised that there are some issues that need data that go way further than that such as aerial photography and we are looking into including those in the data cube. The integration of these two types of imagery into one data cube is a challenge that will soon be tackled.

Ms Mlisa replied that SANSA has a very good relationship with the South African Weather Service and there is no competition.

ASSAf response
Prof Soodyall replied that ASSAf did collect information on demographics and these were detailed on the Strategic Plan. The presentation looked at highlighting a clear picture for the Committee. 49% of scientists members were male and 51% female, 65% were black which included Indians and Coloureds and the remainder comprised of white members.

ASAAf has a mentorship programme that attempts to advance the programmes for young members and we are able to send young scholars from historically disadvantaged universities to participate in Germany on an annual basis. Support is also provided for the attendance at BRICS meetings. We also host our own research day where we invite young scholars locally and from the SADC countries.

We have a membership engagement strategy which includes roadshows to the various universities. There are Council Members that we hope can encourage the current members to be much more involved. We communicate with university public relations departments to advise about ASAAf’s activities and its important initiatives.

Membership is conferred and people are inducted into the Academy and the participation is voluntary based. Members are not paid to participate in our activities, but they are encouraged with the hope that their scholarship will help enhance the visibility of ASAAf’s activities.

Given the global challenges, ASAAf is not unique in experiencing financial challenges but it has been able where possible through partnerships with other academies globally to execute several activities in a collaborative spirit. There have been talks through the BRICS academies and Member states could try to advance some sort of collective arrangement to promote activities in these areas. Should this materialise, there may be alternative funding available.

ASAAf will continue to work on its branding and hopefully in future it can advance that a little bit more. As for the uptake of our activities, we have consensus studies where we invite experts to contribute to areas where we believe these are essential. This information is then disseminated through our website and other portals and we hope that it will be utilised by various stakeholders.

On the diversification of funding, whilst there has been success in doing so that funding is short term and it affects planning and long term budgeting.

Throughout the existence of the Academy, ASAAf has received unqualified audit outcomes but in the most recent years it received unqualified audit outcomes with findings due to the changes in the accounting framework that was changed by National Treasury.

Prof Jansen replied that government ministers do not ask him for advice and that has not happened for a long time. Secondly, the Academy has made public statements in addition to engaging with government.

The Committee Chairperson was not happy with Prof Jansen’s brief response.

TIA response
Mr Mboniswa replied that the matter of the Interim CEO really needed to be dealt with in an expedited manner. He hoped that this time it would be put to bed. He did introduce the Interim CEO who is present n the meeting, perhaps the Chairperson did not hear him. On the acting positions, the Board was working on filling these positions as soon as possible. The process of the General Manager positions were at an advanced stage.

The process for the CEO appointment has taken place at the Board level and recommendations have been made to DSI. Once that process has been concluded, the outcome will be announced by DSI or the Minister.

On the tender bid before her appointment as the Interim CEO (ICEO), she applied but did not receive the tender. At the time, the ICEO did make a declaration as a sitting board member to this effect and TIA can share an audit report on this matter. The ICEO contract is ending in the next three weeks and it will not be extended. There will be an ICEO from the executive management team of the organisation.

Mr Thabiso Ramasike, TIA Board member and Audit & Risk board committee chairperson, replied on the audit status of TIA, saying it has had clean audits over the years. TIA has a strong relationship with the Auditor General which audits TIA through an external auditor.

Mr Werner van der Merwe, TIA CFO, responded to the funding required and said that TIA currently receives about R455 million from Treasury as a basic parliamentary grant. TIA would need at least R1 billion. Its adjusted budget will also be cut by 10%.

Mr Krappie replied about the geographical spread across the provinces and said that investments were made in Northern Cape. In the last three years TIA disbursed about R22.5 million in that region. The technology station that has been placed in Northern Cape is not fully run as yet.

TIA’s activities were driven largely by higher education institutions or a science institutes; so for both Mpumalanga and Northern Cape we have not had these until recently. There are partnerships with Sol Plaatjie University as well as University of Mpumalanga and these institutions have now been included in the Seed Fund Programme. It is important that as we spread the geographical footprint. The previously disadvantage universities are prioritised.

Our low targets speak to our situational analysis and understanding of our capabilities and delivering on what we promise. When TIA started, it had a very specific focus but now it has moved to focusing on commercialisation because now there is a good pipeline to commercialise technologies.

Currently the research system is very important to deliver a good pipeline of bankable projects but this requires optimal functioning of the technology transfer office, as well as research output and patentable products. South Africa invests less in experimental research but more in basic research. Secondly, 87.4% of patent publications come from foreigners in South Africa but TIA has sifted through that pool to allocate South Africans. The result is very worrying. So there are certain fundamentals that need to be place for TIA to succeed in translating technologies to market and it is less about putting money into a project and hoping that it will make it to the market.

The meeting was adjourned.