Your News Feature on South African science (Nature 463, 726–728; 2010) suggests that without financial support from abroad, research endeavours would all but collapse. But there are positive developments.

For example, instead of the poorly funded young researcher you describe, you could have selected at least three others from the same field, cohort, gender and institution who are comparatively well funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF).

It is also worth pointing out that the Department of Science and Technology, through the NRF, is supporting seven centres of excellence, amounting to a total of hundreds of millions of rands over their lifetimes. Five of these (three directly and two indirectly) are concerned with biodiversity research — identified as one of the country's major strengths.

Most of my research is funded by national sources and, acknowledging the confounding impact of career progression, has grown exponentially since 1994. More research opportunities have been created as spending on research and development increased by nearly 50% over this period to 2007. The global financial crisis notwithstanding, 'big science' aspirations should stay on South Africa's agenda.