All main campuses of every university will have premium broadband connection by the end of the year to the South African National Research Network (SANREN), announced science and technology minister Naledi Pandor.
“The connection of all the University of South Africa (Unisa) learning sites will also assist the university to offer better tuition support to its students though e-education. The potential impact is significant as over 30% of all students registered for university studies are at Unisa.” Pandor said.
Funds ranging to R200 million have been set aside to be spent while expanding access to Sanren in this years’ budget speech to get all universities connected by December 2011.
The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has also put aside R2.5 billion to research and development in science and technology.
The department has, in general, put the total amount of R4.4 billion to research and development and about 58% for public institutions engaged with the DST.
Among the funds allocated R433 million will go to the Technology Innovation Agency and R1.089 billion to billion to the National Research Foundation. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) will receive R687 million with Human Science Research Council getting R206 million.
R93 million is set for South African National Space Agency (SANSA) and R32 million for the Africa Institute of South Africa. R11 million is set for the Academy of Science of South Africa.
”The South African Research Chairs Initiative is a flagship initiative designed to attract and retain excellence in research and innovation at South African universities,” added Pandor.
She said that the DST invests more that R200 million a year while supporting about 92 research chairs. “The research conducted includes basic and fundamental research in all fields of science, as well as applied sciences fields, technology development and innovation.
“The expansion of the initiative means that we will have a total of 154 research chairs by 2014, making this a R428 million-a-year initiative,” said Pandor.
“A mere R60 million is spent on the biologics focus area at the CSIR, a pittance compared to the monumentally wasteful R10 billion spent on the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor about which there remain awkward questions,” Said Democratic Alliance (DA) alternative member Wilmot James.
James added that Pandor should put more emphasis on the Academic science development, and to those people who graduated and have no jobs.
by Mpendulo Thubani
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