South Africa is one of the most successful partner countries for the UK in terms of scientific research and technological development. “The scale of [research and development (R&D)] institutional links and governmental links isenormous,” highlights British High Commission (Pretoria) UK regional head: science and innovation John Wade-Smith. “And we are constantly exploring ways to strengthen and broaden the relationship.”

“Both the UK and South Africa regard research as increasingly important to positioning our economies for the future,” he points out. “The Department of Science and Technology has done well in promoting R&D in South Africa. The current UK government is investing heavily in R&D and innovation. Research, skills and training are major elements in our Industrial Strategy.

“The UK’s science and research links with South Africa are vibrant,” he observes. “They include the SKA (Square Kilometre Array) international radio telescope project.” South Africa will co-host this with Australia, while the project’s head office is in the UK (at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Manchester, in England). “South Africa is making a major contribution. It is really exciting from both an astro- nomy and a Big Data point of view. When South Africa delivers on a project, it really delivers – great management, great engineering.”

Many, but not all, of the R&D programmes now under way between the two countries are encompassed by two UK programmes: the Newton Fund and the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). The Newton Fund was launched in 2014 and South Africa is one of 17 partner countries with the UK in this programme (the other African partner countries are Egypt and Kenya). The GCRF started functioning in 2016.

“Newton is a modern partnership,” he explains. “The partners work together and work jointly. Both sides coinvest in this programme and together work out the shared priorities for their bilateral research programmes and coinvest in the joint programmes. In terms of ‘pound for pound’, the level of investment differs, but the model for the programme is based on matched effort. This is a programme based on equitable contribution.”

In the 2016/17 financial year (FY), the UK spent £4-million on Newton projects in South Africa. At the end of that year, London decided to roughly double its global spending on the Newton Fund. For South Africa, this meant an increase of British investment in bilateral projects during FY 2017/18 to £7.6-million; there was a related increase in investment on the South Africa side. “This is a big shared commitment, with multiyear – usually three-year – research programmes.” These programmes, executed under the aegis of Newton, are grouped into three overarching areas: ‘People’, ‘Research’ and ‘Translation’.

‘People’ covers support for human capital development in South Africa. This includes training more than 200 students in both South Africa and the UK, spending part of their PhD programmes in each other’s country, strengthening links, and more than 50 fellowships for South African researchers to work in Britain with their research partners. In addition, there are a large number of mobility fund grants to allow South African researchers to attend overseas conferences. ‘Research’ currently embraces 15 joint research projects, focused on a wide range of health topics, on education research, and on urban transformation. ‘Translation’ is directed at supporting innovation and commercialising it – “this is important for both the UK and South Africa, given the development of the New Economy”.

South Africa’s National Research Foundation, the Technology Innovation Agency, the Medical Research Council, the Agricultural Research Council and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research will soon hold meetings with their partners in the UK (research councils, academies and the British Council) to review how Newton is performing and how it can be improved. These meetings will be jointly chaired by South Africa’s Department of Science and Technology and the UK’s Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (which oversees State-funded civilian R&D in Britain).

The GCRF was assigned £1.5-billion in funding for research into common challenges by research institutions in both the UK and developing countries,

The GCRF works differently to Newton in that open calls are made for bids against key global themes, rather than those specific to a bilateral agreement. It generally requires that the bidders be international teams or consortia including researchers from the UK and developing countries, whether bilateral or multilateral. “South Africa has the world’s highest engagement with the GCRF,” highlights Wade-Smith. “To date, 260 bilateral and multilateral projects have been approved which involve South African scientists.”

One example of a bilateral GCRF project is a UK-South Africa cofunded joint research chair, between the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and the University of Southampton, in oceans and food security. This research chair was able to win £8-million in funding for research into the western Indian Ocean (from South Africa to East Africa) and food security. The funding includes the acquisition of research equipment, such as underwater remotely operated vehicles.

There are many other joint research projects and proposals within and without the frameworks of the Newton Fund and the GCRF. For example, Britain recently funded five South African scientists to attend a trilateral UK-South Africa-Kenya biotechnology conference in Nairobi. The UK is looking at how it can help South Africa increase its number of PhD graduates (a constraint being the limited number of PhD supervisors available in South Africa). Another idea under consideration is an ‘Innovation Bridge’, linking South African and British innovation centres. The UK is also seeking to support South Africa’s transformation policy by creating projects with institutions such as the universities of Limpopo and of Venda, and various universities of technology, as well as with South Africa’s established research universities, and helping develop black, as well as women, scientists.