As a long-time aficionado of the Weekly Mail Mail & Guardian, it was hard not to miss - in the Higher Learning supplement in today's issue - an article entitled "Research put on hold to fund World Cup", with reference to the National Research Foundation's lack of funding for an SA-Spain joint programme.
Now, this was the first time I have seen this in print - although I have heard it said a number of times with regard to why it is that the NRF has dismally failed recently in what one would assume to be their prime function: actually giving out money for research.
Devotees of this blog - yes, T_Ed, you and The Cow - will know that I have oft referred to our premier "pure" research funding agency - the NRF - as being an acronym for "Not Real Funding".
And now you know why.
Seriously, now: what with the fiasco around the "Blue Skies" funding area, recently featured in the SAJSci (and here), where the NRF blithely redefined the mission statement for the Focus Area to mean ONLY original research proposals would be funded, one HAS to conclude that the agency is ineffectual, underfunded, and directionless. From the M&G supplement:
Dr Therina Theron, senior director of research and innovation at Stellenbosch University [and formerly well known to UCT folk], captured a wider mood when she said that "although the academic community strongly supported the development associated with the World Cup, serious long-term damage" is envisaged if the already insufficient national investment in research is reduced even further as a result of any event.
"Scientific research and the building of highly skilled human capacity require a long-term and consistent approach. Any diversion of funding away from research, regardless of where the funds are diverted to, will result in a loss of highly skilled academic staff, a lack of ability to train adequate numbers of postgraduate students nationally and the reduced ability to effectively perform innovative research … It will take the South African research community many years to recover -- long after the euphoria of the World Cup event has passed," she said.
Although the South Africa-Spain joint science and technology research agreement is one of 30 similar projects managed by the NRF, the research community said the cancellation of this initiative was indicative of wide-ranging problems at the agency, which has the task of supporting and funding research organisations and their work.
These problems include a decline in real terms in the core funding received from the department of science and technology and a new funding strategy, which has diverted funding from general research to national priority areas. The funding crisis was highlighted in a recent article in the South African Journal of Science.
On an operational level the research community has raised concerns over the service levels of the NRF. These include a lack of well-trained staff at the NRF, inadequate processes in terms of peer reviewing of applications for funding, inadequate communication and ineffective management in the process.
The absence of a chief executive for seven months [he stayed in a hotel, then went back to his family in the USA] has also had a negative effect on the agency, meaning there are high expectations from the newly appointed head and previous vice-president, Dr Albert van Jaarsveld, to tackle the crisis.
Ja, boet...so add "leaderless" to the catalogue of woes.
There are real consequences to this buffoonery: one of the most important is that programmes which train students are being terminated, with all of the knock-on effects that this implies.
Like alienation from research for students who get cut loose. Like the gatvol factor kicking in with unfunded researchers.
Let's hope there is a long and lasting economic benefit to SA from the 2010 World Cup - because there may well be a long and lasting research deficit to offset.
