Conference Report

Strengthening Collaboration Between Higher Education, Goverment and Industry for Research and Innovation

Higher Education South Africa (HESA)

11-12 MARCH 2010

CSIR International Conference Centre, Pretoria

Foreword

The Department of Education’s National Plan for Higher Education (2001) emphasises the value and importance of research as follows:

“Research, in all its forms and functions, is perhaps the most powerful vehicle that we have to deepen our democracy.  Research engenders the values of inquiry, critical thinking, creativity and open-mindedness, which are fundamental to building a strong, democratic ethos in society.  It creates communities of scholars, who build collegiality and network across geographic and disciplinary boundaries.   It makes possible the growth of an innovation culture in which new ideas approaches and applications increase the adaptive and responsive capacity of our society, thereby enhancing both our industrial competitiveness and our ability to solve our most pressing social challenges.  It contributes to the global accumulation of knowledge and places South Africa amongst those nations who have active programmes of knowledge generation”

Locally and globally, our society confronts challenges of increasing complexity and magnitude. We need to review the ways in which our economy addresses the polarisation of wealth and poverty, and how it provides for the well-being and fulfillment of growing populations. We must devise technologies that counter pandemics of disease, and the threats to our environment. In short, we must grow our capacity for research, innovation and high-level skills with a view to the future: both short- and long-term.

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