How collaboration could stretch research funding in a climate of diminishing resources
In a world of shrinking resources, universities in South Africa face a pressing challenge: how can university-led research and innovation address the country’s triple burdens of poverty, inequality, and unemployment, while aligning with the needs of the broader African region?
These were some of the questions attendees at the 3rd Higher Education Conference, hosted by Universities South Africa from 9 to 11 October 2024, explored. The conference brought together local and international higher education leaders, researchers, policymakers, educators, and industry experts to examine what the future of universities looks like.
During a session that explored Research and Innovation Strategies in Relation to Declining Resources, university research and innovation leaders unpacked these questions to outline how the higher education system can be more responsive to these pressing societal needs.
Professor Lynn Morris (left), University of the Witwatersrand Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation, provided an overview of global and regional expenditure on research and development (R&D).
“It will also come as no surprise to this audience that the global R&D expenditure is elsewhere in the world [and not on the African continent]. More than a third of the global R&D expenditure is in East and Southeast Asia, almost 30% is in North America and about 22% is in Europe. Less than 1% of global R&D is spent in Africa – the whole continent’s spend is less than Australia’s. So clearly, this is a tough picture for all of us operating in this environment,” Professor Morris said.
Homing in on South Africa, Professor Morrison revealed that resources towards research are actively declining. In addition, unlike the global trend where corporate funding drives the R&D agenda, South Africa has low rates of funding from the private sector.
“That does sound pretty grim, but the reason why I think it’s important that we stress these is because of what the impact of this is: it’s going to limit our ability to address the problems that we face, whether it’s inequality, healthcare, education and climate change,” she explained.
Misaligned priorities
Another implication of virtually all R&D funding being outside the African continent, Professor Morris said, was that there tends to be a misalignment of priorities as the continent has specific challenges and research needs that international funding conditions might not take into account.
She added: “And of course, international funders don’t really prioritise capacity building. So often there’s no funding in there for bursaries for young, early career researchers who are still in training. This competition for limited resources impacts our pipeline for training young researchers.”
Dr Vathiswa Papu-Zamxaka (right), Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Engagement at the Tshwane University of Technology, reiterated the importance of alignment in relation to multi-regional and cross-sector research partnerships and collaborations.
“I want to emphasise the importance of leveraging international collaborations to fund innovation, research and innovation. However, it’s of paramount importance to strike the balance between south-to-south and south-north or north-to-north collaborations,” she said.
“So, in the case of research and innovation, over and above looking at the possibilities out there… how do we, inside the institution, mobilise ourselves so that we are relevant in terms of the work that needs to be done?”
The research and innovation panellists with Professor Sibusiso Moyo (far left), Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies at Stellenbosch University, and Professor Sizwe Mabizela (middle), Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Rhodes University.
In-house university expertise
Dr Papu-Zamxaka illustrated this point by making an example of how projects that higher education institutions themselves embark on, such as supplementing electricity supply on campuses, often enlist expert input of external consultants, while the universities have ample supply of in-house expertise.
“Many of our institutions are spending a lot of money on energy, but where are the energy experts sitting? They’re sitting in institutions. I can tell you that my own institution, per year, for one campus, spends R40 million on energy alone.
“If, for instance, you’re installing solar PVs (photovoltaics) in an institution, there are two layers in that process. The first layer is the consultancy, where they are doing the designing and the assessment and whatnot. The second layer is where you have the service providers, the people who are doing the real stuff, the technicalities. That first layer, the consulting, could be done by academics. We could second them to do that work, especially those that are in the centres of research within our institutions,” she said.
By tapping into in-house expertise, along with other measures, Dr Papu-Zamxaka said universities can position themselves to attract external funding.
How diminishing funding impacts postgraduate enrolments
Dr Carol Nonkwelo (right), Senior Director for Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Education at the University of Pretoria, highlighted how universities with their varied sizes, contexts and differing streams of income were being affected by declining resources across all institutional functions, from postgraduate enrolment rates to research outputs and career progression for younger researchers.
“One of the areas where we see great impact is postgraduate enrolments and graduation. Due to inadequate funding, there’s just not enough to cover students’ cost-of-living, especially in the big cities and that also starts affecting completion rates,” she said.
“And then it of course affects the optimal research activities and outputs. We know that publication fees are high — that’s always an area of stress. However, there are mechanisms that libraries have in place to try and assist researchers in this regard, such as negotiating good deals in areas in which we spend quite a bit when it comes to publication fees.
“And then, when it comes to younger, early-career academics and post-doctoral fellows, declining resources affect their career progression and their ability to grow their own research pipelines and outputs and their capacity to build their own research programmes,” Dr Nonkwelo said.
Possible solutions
The panellists pointed out that despite the challenges, there are signs of progress driven by networks such as African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA), which have led to an increase in research outputs and publications — a crucial indicator of research vitality. ARUA is a network of universities from different countries that is aimed at expanding and enhancing the output quality of research in Africa by African researchers.
“ARUA’s aim is to increase the quality of research and they train the next generation of African researchers. Despite all the funding crises on the continent, the number of research publications is going up. And this is a global trend as well. Publications, as we know, are an indicator of research activity. And you know, of course, we all know the challenge of converting that into more impactful solutions, but I think it is a very nice indication,” Professor Morris said.
She said that collaborative networks and joint research projects offer institutions and academics access to resources, infrastructure and intellectual capital.
Nontobeko Mtshali is a contract writer for Universities South Africa.
