Keynote address by the honourable Minister of Science and Technology, Mr Mosibudi Mangena, at the official Launch of the Research Information Management System Project, Sappi Technology Centre, Innovation Hub, Pretoria

Programme director
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Mr Godfrey Oliphant
Heads of Government Departments, Academia and the Science Councils
Representatives of Info-Ed International
Members of the Research Information Management System Strategic Steering Committee
Members of the Research Information Management System Executive Committee
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

I would like to recognise, right at the outset, the visionary university-consortium including Witwatersrand University, Stellenbosch University, University of Johannesburg, University of the North West, Pretoria University and Tshwane University of Technology as well as the National Research Foundation and the pioneering science councils that will be involved in the pilot phase.

I believe that most of us here share a passionate interest in the potential benefits of Research Information Management System (RIMS), which will be used throughout South Africa to support research at public universities, science councils and any other public research institution that wishes to use it.

As a national information system, there is value to be gained from the RIMS in terms of speed and ease of access to information on research activities. This will certainly enhance decisions at the institutional level and in government. There is also an opportunity created for greater 'connectivity' both within the research community and amongst government, researchers and even industry.

Over the last five years, we have made a very strong case within government on the socio-economic impacts of investments in Research and Development (R&D) activities. With R&D underpinning technological innovation, huge gains have been achieved over the past century in human welfare, particularly in areas such as health, nutrition and agriculture. Of great importance is that R&D specifically develops a nations' human capital, and contributes to the development of a scientific and technologically advanced workforce.

Given the importance of R&D in economic growth and development, it is not surprising that many countries have strategies in place to increase the R&D intensity of their economies, and have set targets in this regard for the next five to ten years. South Africa is no different. As many of you are aware, a target of 1 percent Growth Domestic Product has been set for the gross national expenditure on R&D by 2008. The mid-Term Review considered by Cabinet in 2007 on government's Medium Term Strategic Framework demands we must begin to consider revising this target upwards, closer to the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of 2,5 percent. However, before this target can be revised, we would have to assess how well we have done on reaching the 1 percent target, and more importantly, what impact has been achieved with the growth from a low base of 0,69 percent in 1997 to the last record from 2005/06 of 0,91 percent.

The problem for us is that, historically, the data on R&D spending is compiled retrospectively; yielding information that is two or three years old. This is why I can only speak of the 2005/06 results. We will only know whether we did reach the 1 percent target after the survey is completed on the 2008 spending and that will be done during next year. But, with an information system like the RIMS, we will be able to get this information much sooner, and will therefore be in a position to better influence government and industry R&D investments decisions.

The RIMS will provide a central repository for research and research data that will allow funding and government agencies to view reports as required, facilitating the whole research management and funding process.

Government spends billions of rand annually to support national research and development entities. My department has an annual budget in excess of R3 billion, more than 90 percent of which constituting transfers to science institutions for R&D and related activities. The 2005/06 R&D survey indicates that government allocated R5,4 billion, of which R1,697 billion went to higher education institutions for R&D. Currently, government lacks the necessary tools to obtain a detailed, holistic understanding of where its research and development funds are invested, and how much it is spending on each area of science and technology. This means that decision makers are not in a position to monitor research outputs in an integrated way.

There is some information available, but much of it is incomplete, anecdotal or outdated. Until now, data on government-funded research and development has been compiled retrospectively, using traditional survey techniques. As already mentioned, it is information that is often two to three years old at the time of its release. We believe the RIMS will now make the work of the Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII) at the Human Sciences Research Council much easier by providing reliable and comparable data.

The Research Information Management System (RIMS) is the product of many years of hard work by a large team of dedicated professionals, comprising the consortium of universities, representatives of science councils and government departments. Ladies and gentlemen, without the efforts of these role players, the RIMS project would not have reached this stage.

I would like to share with you some information about how we got to this point and how much I appreciate the high-level co-operation that has marked the development of this information system. In 2004, Cabinet approved a new governance system for the science system, and National Treasury agreed to provide ring-fenced resources to the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to ensure that proper information systems are developed and put in place to monitor and report on the performance of the science system.

All government departments now have to report on their science and technology expenditure through Treasury processes. The department must also report on the Research and Development (R&D) Survey results, which are now 'official statistics'. At the same time, at the institutional level, universities and science councils have come to appreciate the value of proper information systems on R&D activities. A group of universities spent resources through the Southern African Research and Innovation Manager's Association (SARIMA) on such a project. This project also enjoyed support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

As a follow up, the universities explored software for an information system, the Info-Ed platform, one of four solutions that had been submitted as vendor proposals. My department had been working on the definitions and types of information that would be useful to government. The universities and my department examined this further, and the decision was reached to use the Info-Ed solution off a national license as it addressed the needs of both government and the research managers at an institutional level.

During the past several months, there have been numerous demonstrations, meetings and workshops to ensure that the Info-Ed software, in particular, could be utilised nationally. The universities and Info-Ed International began the process of customising the system with the support of the National Research Foundation (NRF) and my department.

The initial testing of the system was done at the Universities of Witwatersrand, Pretoria and Stellenbosch, between January and April 2007. The Department of Science and Technology is now ready to pilot the system in the science councils that are ready to come on board. Most science councils have expressed their support for the RIMS and their theoretical buy-in to the piloting phase, and the Council for Geosciences has already started with the pilot.

We are equally pleased with the general progress thus far. A R27 million non-exclusive national license has been secured, a contract between the NRF and Info-Ed International Incorporation was signed in May 2007, and the NRF has purchased four servers for the Enterprise Staging Area. The Research Outputs Module has been developed at the request of South African universities. Above all else, the pilot and test phase report show the value and importance of a well-developed, comprehensive and highly efficient information system.

Going forward, we shall soon provide information technology infrastructure to science councils through the National Research Foundation, continue with piloting and testing in the science councils, roll out implementation to higher education institutions, and obtain commitment from institutions to submit data and update information in the database.

Ladies and gentlemen, government is committed to positioning South Africa as a preferred destination for investing in science and technology. Excellent initiatives such as the RIMS will certainly go a long way in helping South Africa achieve this objective, which is now well within our reach. While it is a brick-by-brick construction job, like any good construction job, it needs sound foundations, which we now have.

There are three foundations from which we grow to become a preferred destination. First, we have a well-educated, multi-skilled, multi-lingual workforce. Second, we provide a secure science and technology environment, a vibrant economy and state-of-the-art R&D infrastructure. And finally, we have an eye to the future. With our Ten-Year Innovation Plan, we will embark on an on-going process to prepare South Africa for this century and beyond. The RIMS is a perfect example of the second of these foundations in action. The quality of our infrastructure is a critical factor in attracting and retaining global R&D investors and practitioners.

Ladies and gentlemen, the platform we are launching is a welcome development. It is encouraging to see projects undertaken that set up links between universities and science councils. The universities have made a good start to this process, and are well placed to carry this work forward. In order to ensure successful implementation of RIMS, my department will appoint a programme manager to take responsibility for the project and change management at institutional level.

The South African RIMS is a web-based strategic tool that will capture data and produce reports on research inputs, outputs and processes of the research institutions, and will be completely integrated with other existing systems at institutional level. It would be hard not to exaggerate the importance of such a national system in addressing the highly disaggregated and fragmented picture of research and development investment in South Africa, particularly considering the amount of money government has invested in this project.

Government has made a commitment of over R40 million to the development and implementation of the RIMS project. For my department, it is money well spent. For the future, we are committed to the further development and use of high quality information as a basis for all R&D decisions. Information must be relevant and accessible to all those who require it, in the most useful formats, and using the potential of information and communication technology (ICT) to the full in its collection and dissemination.

R&D data is an example of an area where information is well developed as evidenced by the RIMS project being launched today. To some extent, this is due to the resource intensity of research institutions and the fact that information is more readily captured where it is concentrated in a limited number of single locations.

In the coming months and years, the RIMS will no doubt move with speed to become the single, truly coherent home for our country's research information, with the South African Expertise Portal making all this information easily accessible in cyberspace.

The RIMS will administer over R5 billion per annum. It will be deployed at the public research institutions including the universities. Thanks to the Info-Ed suite of software products, which provide access to international grants and funders, RIMS will be used by more than 40 000 concurrent users performing between 10 000 and 20 000 transactions per week. Info-Ed's Master CV Database, which will hold all the researchers' resumes from all the participating institutions, will allow for accurate reporting on our human resources, networking between researchers and institutions, and a web portal for publishing information. This platform will also allow users to see total research and development investment in specific areas of science and technology across agencies, or examine the details and comparisons of research investments between sectors and public entities.

In closing, we congratulate the President of Info-Ed, Mr Ed Johnson, and his dedicated staff for the production of this valuable software we are now using. I look forward to the continued successful development and application of their products for the benefit of our research community. We are proud to be associated with this fantastic world class project.

I am truly honoured to officially launch the national Research Information Management System project.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
26 February 2008