NRF Annual Report 2018

PART B: PERFORMANCE
Association (SARIMA), 12 by the New Partnership for
Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and three by the African
Centre for Technology Studies.
The University of Sussex Science Policy Research Unit
(SPRU) completed a political economy analysis of councils
in five countries (Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Ethiopia and
Senegal), and two regional analyses, in west and southern
Africa. These studies are a baseline against which future
outputs and outcomes can be measured, and provide
additional context for the ongoing design and implementation
of the SGCI’s capacity-strengthening activities.
Following the endorsement by GRC members of the
statement of principles on ‘Equality and status of women in
research’ to guide the SGC gender approach, a GRC gender
working group, co-chaired by the NRF, was established to
support international benchmarking and sharing of good
practices among GRC members. The group focuses on
collecting, analysing and reporting gender-disaggregated
data. To date, an implementation action plan has been
finalised focusing on:
• Understanding the types of gender-disaggregated data
sets collected by select SGCs;
• Developing a data-gathering tool that aids genderdisaggregated
data collection across SGCs;
• Collecting, analysing and reporting comparative genderdisaggregated
data on research funding decisions
across the GRC; and
• Collating indicators of success in the SGC research and
grants management cycle.
This will aid benchmarking across the GRC and is linked to
ongoing NRF work on the organisation’s gender approach
and position.
The NRF and DST hosted the first conference on the
Transformative Innovation Policy (TIP). The TIP Consortium
comprises the University of Sussex (UK), the Research
Council of Norway, the Swedish biotechnology innovation
system, the Finnish Funding Agency for Innovation and
the Colombian Administration Department of Science,
Technology and Innovation, (Colciencias). The project
explores the future of innovation policy – its foundation,
formulation and governance. The NRF will continue
investing in this initiative for its strategic advantage.
A joint meeting of the International Social Science Council
(ISSC) and the International Council for Science (ICSU),
which was held in Taipei, took a momentous decision to
merge the two into a single organisation, the International
Science Council (ISC). South Africa will continue to be
represented by the NRF and the HSRC. The NRF is
developing a new framework of engagement for ISC
activities and national strategic intent for South Africa.
Southern African Systems Analysis Centre (SASAC) and
International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
activities during the financial year included:
• Negotiations for the support of an additional 10 doctoral
students under the SASAC 2018 cohort with the British
Council. The 10 students will be co-supervised by
researchers based at UK higher learning institutions;
and
• Publication of a book on systems analysis approaches
to showcase selected research outputs emanating from
the South Africa-IIASA partnership.
Other strategic events during the financial year included
the:
• IAU committee meeting;
• International Union for Quaternary Science convened
the Southern African Society for Quaternary Research
conference;
• International Union of Radio Science committee
meeting;
• Joint International Association for the Physical Sciences
of the Oceans-International Association of Meteorology
and Atmospheric Sciences-International Association of
Geomagnetism and Aeronomy Assembly;
• Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research (SCOR)
committee meeting;
• South African Association of Food Science and
Technology Governing Council biennial congress;
• SCOR IAPSO-IAMAS-IAGA conference;
• International Union of Nutritional Sciences/International
NRF Annual Report 2017/18 53