NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO 993
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: (28-08-2009) (INTERNAL
QUESTION PAPER NO 12-2009)
â993. Ms M R Shinn (DA) to ask the Minister of Science and Technology:
1) How many scientists (a) were registered and (b) are rated by the
National Research Foundation (NRF) (i) in (aa) 2007 and (bb) 2008 and
(ii) during the period 1January 2009 up to the latest specified d for
which the information is available;
2) Whether the number of scientists being rated by the NRF has declined;
if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, what is the reason
for the decline?
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REPLY:
1(a) The NRF does not maintain a registration system for scientists in the
country. However, the 2006/07 R&D Survey reported a total headcount
of 39Â 591 researchers, including PhD and postdoctoral students, across
all sectors (Government, Business, Higher Education, Science Councils
and Non-profit organizations).
(b)(i) The evaluation and rating of individual scientists is based
primarily on the quality of the research outputs in the recent past
and is undertaken by national and international peers/reviewers who
are requested to critically scrutinise the completed research.
"Recent", in the context of the NRF evaluation and rating system,
means outputs of the past seven years, i.e., from 1 January 2001 to 31
December 2008 (for applications which were submitted on 27 February
2009). It should be noted that while the NRF rating system exclusively
focuses on research outputs, student supervision is also a key
priority for South Africa.
Since 1984, the evaluation and rating system applied only to
scientists in the Natural Sciences, Engineering and Technology (SET),
it was introduced in the Social Sciences and Humanities in 2002.
Researchers are rated for a period of five years, thereafter they have
to be re-evaluated. In the re-evaluation, researchers who had already
been rated are invited to submit documents for re-evaluation and if
the researcher does not respond to the invitation their rating lapses.
The NRF uses a financial year cycle to report on rated researchers,
i.e., from 1 April to 31 March the following year.
(aa) In the year 2007/08, of the 621 scientists who applied for
rating, 247 were new applicants. There are 533 scientists who
received their rating, bringing the total number of rated
scientists or valid ratings to 1 686. The reason for the high
number of applications (533) is that this was the first year of
re-evaluations for Social Sciences and Humanities.
ab) In 2008/09, of the 556 scientists who applied for rating, 262
were new applicants. In this year, 478 scientists received
ratings from the NRF bringing the total number of rated
researchers to 1 914.
(ii) Although the rating of scientists for the current financial year is
still in progress, 592 scientists have applied, 341 of these are new
applicants; the number of scientists who will be rated this year and
hence the overall number of rated scientists has not yet been
finalised. It is important to note that an increase in the number of
new applicants and hence rated researchers is due to incentive
funding, which enables rated researchers to apply for funding for the
duration of their rating. Researchers who are rated by the NRF may
apply for incentive for the duration of the rating. The funding is not
2 The number of scientists rated by the NRF has increased from 1 686 in
2007/08 to 1 914 in 2008/09. What is also encouraging is that the
number of new applicants has increased from 247 to 341 in the period
2007/08 to 2009/10. It is important to note that 39 591 which is the
number of researchers reflected in 1(a) above, includes students doing
PhD, post-doctoral research, whereas the numbers of rated scientists
incorporates scientists who show various levels of expertise in their
fields.
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