Impact of a mixed income model on the South African CSIR: a recipe for success or disaster?

Abstract

The increasing shift towards external contract research income (in contrast to grant income) as the primary means of funding public research institutions and universities has extracted a high toll on these institutions and on their stakeholders. Although this policy has the benefits of increasing the relevance of public research institutions to broader research and development (R&D) objectives, and of improving the competitiveness of the public R&D sector, data from the financial performance of the South African CSIR over a long period indicates that it has had the simultaneous but adverse effects of reducing research capacity, decreasing the social return from public funds and increasing the cost of research to the public sector. The continuing use of external research income as a key performance measure is highly problematic and will further undermine the science and technology quality of our research institutions. Although a return to exclusive grant funding is also not the answer, the use of a mixed income model requires the simultaneous adoption of a set of research management practices to prevent the recurrence of the problems faced by the CSIR over the last four years.