cape town

Research seems to have fared badly in South Africa's budget this year, at first glance. Nominally, it has decreased by four per cent from 1,116 million rand (US $219 million) to R1,074 million — a decline of ten per cent in real terms after inflation is taken into account.

But science and engineering university researchers are pleased that the agency that funds research in their fields in the tertiary education sector, the Foundation for Research Development (FRD), received a budget rise of 28 per cent. This increase comes out of the science vote awarded though the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology.

The allocation to universities reverses the trend in last year's budget, when the two largest councils responsible for ‘in-house’ research, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), received increases of 19 and 11 per cent respectively (see Nature 386, 425; 1997).

This year both these councils had their budgets cut — by one per cent for the CSIR and 35 per cent for ARC, which has been the most severely affected.

The change has been welcomed in university circles. Renfrew Christie, dean of research at the University of the Western Cape, says it is essential that more research funds be allocated to agencies serving the higher education sector, as they are able to use them more efficiently.

The ARC has had to respond to its budget cut by terminating many projects and, in some instances, laying off staff members, according to Nico Human, its group executive for marketing and public relations.

He says the council has been successful in obtaining alternative sources of funding for some projects. But Christie counters that the ARC budget cut is both “long overdue” and not enough, describing it as an “unforgivably inefficient institution”.

The FRD is using most of its increased funding to double its allocation to tertiary education institutions to buy research equipment, and to grant a 38 per cent funding increase to its programme of boosting research in ‘historically disadvantaged’ institutions.

The FRD also succeeded in obtaining an additional R50 million through the Department of Trade and Industry to fund its programme on technology and human resources for industry. This programme, which helps to set up partnerships between industry and universities or technical colleges, has attracted an additional R70 million from the private sector this year.