Minister Hanekom has concluded a successful visit to Brussels, undertaking a number of engagements aimed at strengthening South Africa’s scientific and technological cooperation with both the European Union and Belgium. 

At the invitation of the European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Commissioner Marie Geoghegan-Quinn, Minister Hanekom participated in the EU’s prestigious Innovation Convention. The event brought together more than 3000 participants from the public and private sector debating how innovation should best be promoted in support of growth and development.

At the Convention, Minister Hanekom participated in a high-level panel discussion on “Global Challenges, Global Cooperation”, which included the participation of the President of the European Research Council, Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, Argentina’s Minister of Science and Technology, Lina Baranao, and the influential United States Congresswoman, Berenice Johnson.

During this discussion Minister Hanekom illustrated, through the example of South Africa’s hosting of the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope, how mutually beneficial international partnerships, boosting innovation and human capital development, could be fostered by leveraging different partners’ respective comparative advantages.

During his visit, Minister Hanekom also spoke at an event hosted by South Africa’s Ambassador to the European Union, Ambassador Mxolisi Nkosi, celebrating the role of science and technology in improving the quality of life during South Africa’s first twenty years of democracy. 

The event was attended by a select group of high-level guests, including Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn, to whom Minister Hanekom could express his appreciation for the EU’s extensive support for science and technology in South Africa. Minister Hanekom further met with the Chief Science Advisor to the President of the European Commission, Prof Anne Glover, enjoying a rich exchange on how best to deploy scientific advice to inform international decision- and policy-making.

Minister Hanekom’s visit had as second objective the strengthening of bilateral science and technology partnership with Belgium. At the invitation of the Flemish Minister of Innovation, Ingrid Lieten, Minister Hanekom visited Flanders’ renowned and world-leading nano-electronics institute IMEC, exploring new research and training cooperation opportunities for South Africa.

The Minister also paid an informative visit to several social innovation projects targeting social exclusion and poverty, supported by the “Flanders Social Innovation Factory”, a pioneering public-private partnership programme, which offered insights into how such projects could better be promoted in South Africa.

Minister Hanekom and Minister Lieten also presided over a special event where six new research cooperation projects implemented by South African and Flemish universities, funded by South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) and its Flemish counterpart, the FWO, were presented. 

In a significant step forward to broaden South Africa’s bilateral science cooperation with Belgium, a new cooperation agreement between the NRF and its equivalent from the French-language regions in Belgium (Wallonia and Brussels), was also signed during Minister Hanekom’s visit – it is the first-ever agreement of its kind with Wallonia-Brussels.

From Brussels, the Minister travelled onwards to Poland, as part of Deputy President’s Motlanthe’s visit to that country and where the Minister will meet with his Polish counterpart to discuss cooperation in astronomy.