DST's principal goals are to enhance SA's knowledge-generation capacity, develop innovation capacity and the necessary science and technology innovation (STI) human capital to meet the needs of society. The idea is to build a world-class STI infrastructure to extend the frontiers of knowledge, train the next generation of researchers and enable technology development and transfer. Thereby positioning SA as a strategic international research development and innovation (RDI) partner and making the exchange of knowledge, capacity and resources between SA and its regional and international partners possible.