Research Management in Southern African Higher Learning Institutions (International Commentary) (Author Abstract‪)‬

Introduction Contemporary Southern Africa is characterized by a lack of innovation system at the national level and a corresponding lack of research management in the national university. A consequence of this is that the region is not as yet positioned to harness science and technology for its economic development. This deficiency is the major factor contributing to the continuous lack of economic growth in the region despite the prevalence of natural resources such as minerals and other natural advantages like extensive coastlines. By contrast, the developed world has moved beyond science and technology development to innovation. The result of this is that these countries are increasing their national wealth through expanding their share of the global market for goods and services which derive from science and technology based innovation. The developed countries have come a long way with technology-based development. They have satisfied the first pre-condition for technology transfer, which is to establish a strong science system. Next, technology development and technology transfer systems which are based on national economic needs and the global market are firmly in place. For technology development to occur, at least two things must come together: (1) social and physical infrastructure or human resources and (2) the machines. The developed world has all of that. However, a major requirement is the presence of a political will that should manifest itself through an overarching framework of a national research and an innovation strategy that largely works to implement the national science and technology (S&T) policy. Again, this exists in the developed world. The technology transfer system does have underlying dynamics which need to be understood if expectations from investment must be realistic. These underlying dynamics include the likely size of returns, time taken to generate a positive return, and the variability of outcome. Through successful harnessing of these, the developed world continues to increase its economic strength.