South Africa's participation in Framework Programmes and ESASTAP's progress

14 September 2007

SA is one of the principal and most successful Third Country participants of the EU's Framework Programmes. Under the 4th Framework Programme, SA research groups collaborated in more than 40 research projects with European partners. The Fifth Framework Programme produced more than 60 projects with SA participation.

SA's participation in the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) proved to be most successful, with in excess of 117 project participations by SA researchers, and SA being ranked fourth, behind the United States of America, The People's Republic of China and the Russian Federation, in terms of successful FP6 participation by non-EU countries.

The extent of SA participation, viz. number of participations / thematic priority area also significantly increased in FP6, with first-time participation by SA researchers in the Aeronautics and Space, Transport and the Citizens and Governance in the Knowledge-based Information Society priority areas. Opportunities in some of the thematic areas were, however, poorly exploited, notably the mobility instruments as an example. An overview of SA's FP6 participation in each of the Thematic Priority Areas is given in the figure below.

Figure 1: Summary of SA participation in FP6 per thematic priority area

The success of SA's participation in FP6 may in large part be attributed to the role and activities of the European - South African Science and Technology Advancement Programme (ESASTAP). ESASTAP, a dedicated platform for the advancement of EU SA scientific and technological (S&T) cooperation, is a FP6 Specific Support Action implemented by the SA Department of Science and Technology (DST) and funded by the European Commission (EC).

ESASTAP's activities focussed on:

• showcasing the excellence and innovation of SA science, and reciprocally, S&T activities of individual EU member states, and fostering the development of S&T networks and partnerships;
• promoting greater SA participation in the activities of the Framework Programmes;
• creating and maintaining systems and forums promoting increased awareness and utilisation by both SA and EU countries of existing and future S&T cooperative initiatives, and
• developing targeted initiatives that facilitate the SA and the EU to jointly identify S&T priorities for enhancing cooperation.

ESASTAP has to date recorded several achievements, including amongst others:

• Systems and forums: i) ESASTAP exhibited at the 2005 European Commission's Directorate-General for Research "Communicating European Research" conference, (ii) the ESASTAP mobility portal and partnering database to aid and facilitate SA - European partnering and networking, and enhance SA participation in the Framework Programmes, (iii) regularly published e-communiqués, which constantly updated the community while ensuring promotion of opportunities for engagement in the Framework Programme (iv) the preparation and distribution of various brochures, posters, CDs etc. intended to highlight the role of ESASTAP as well as showcase FP6 projects and other SA-EU participation; (v) hosting of a successful Young Scientist Competition, (vi) exhibiting at various international and national conferences (vii) the ESASTAP website.
  
  
• Activities undertaken towards fostering the development of S&T networks and partnerships between SA and European scientists: (i) initiating / hosting EU member state launches; (ii) thematic workshops, (iii) national and international meetings / workshops / conferences with country representatives, research organisations, industry players, public sector, (iv) hosting in Brussels the "Innovative South Africa Conference" in 2006 and the "South Africa Science Day Conference" in 2007, both which promoted innovation developments in SA, and provided a platform for developing dialogue between SA and European partners, and furthermore (v) an extensive National Contact Point (NCP) network (SA being one of the first third countries to host such an association) to which ESASTAP provides considerable support, and also harnesses the expertise and networks of both the SA and European NCP to promote greater cooperation and collaboration between the research communities.
  
  
• Targeted initiatives facilitating the joint identification of S&T priorities for enhanced cooperation: (i) providing inputs to the European Commission Expert Group on the Future of INCO; (ii) introducing ESASTAP to the NePAD S&T desk; (iii) presenting / facilitating presentations at the Dimension of the Europe of Knowledge: A Common Interest to Europe and to the World Conference, the Conference on Social Sciences and the Humanities in Europe: New Challenges, New Opportunities, and the e Government research agenda of the future FP7, to (iv) hosting the European Commission's Director General Dr Achilleas Mitsos during a visit to SA.
  
  
• Initiatives promoting greater SA participation in the Framework Programmes: (i) the Coeur4L workshops, (ii) a seminar at INSITE 2006 (the biannual DST S&T exposition) where Framework Programme "support platform" projects were highlighted, (ii) exhibitions at Bio2Biz, the annual biotechnology forum for SA, (iv) organising specialist workshops to promote industry and SME participation in the Framework Programmes, (v) providing opportunities for SA researchers to access seed funding, (vi) extensive promotion of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) with several general information and thematic sessions being hosted across the country where the SA research community were familiarised with the proposed FP7 content and instruments for participation, amongst other benefits.

In FP6, participation by Developing Country participants in the thematic priorities was funded for the first time. One of ESASTAP's priorities was, therefore, to market participation in the thematic priority areas, both in terms of its FP6 information campaigns to the SA research community, and when marketing SA research excellence in Europe. SA participation in previous Framework Programmes predominantly occurred in International Cooperation (INCO), in the form of coordination / support actions, and small research projects (STREPs). It was, therefore, satisfying to note that, although there was still significant participation in INCO projects (30%, see Figure 1), there was also considerable SA participation in the thematic areas, with a high percentage of SA participating in the large integrated research projects. The project spread for SA participants in shown in the figure below.

Figure 2: Funding schemes / project instruments for South African FP6 participation

Noteworthy is ESASTAP's efforts to encourage and enhance FP6 participation by representatives from the various sectors of the SA research community. Traditionally participation in the Framework Programmes has been dominated by science councils and selected universities. ESASTAP endeavoured, however, to market FP6 not only to those science councils and universities that had poor representation in the Framework Programmes, but also to the public and private sector. Figure 3 provides an overview of the FP6 participation statistics in regards to the different sectors of the research community.

Figure 3: Participation across various sectors of the South African research community

Although most FP6 participants still originated from universities and science councils, there was an appreciable increase in participation by other parties. Analysis of the detailed statistics provided some pleasing results. Twelve of the 23 SA universities participated in FP6 projects; of the 12 universities, all but one of the 11 "traditional" academic universities are represented. Only one of the 6 comprehensive universities achieved FP6 success, with no university of technology participating. Six of the 8 science councils successfully participated in FP6, with only the Council for Geosciences and the South African Bureau of Standards having no FP6 projects. Most rewarding are the statistics relating to participation by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and government departments. SMEs made up 9% of total FP6 participation by SA.

The importance of the SA-EU relationship, as well as the strategic role that ESASTAP plays in advancing S&T partnerships between SA and the EU was affirmed at the Sixth Meeting of the EU - SA Joint Science and Technology Cooperation Committee (JSTCC) held in Brussels in April 2007. This meeting, co-chaired by Mrs Mary Minch, the Director: International Scientific Cooperation for the EC's Directorate-General Research, and Mr Dhesigen Naidoo, SA's DST Deputy Director-General: International Cooperation and Resources was convened under the SA-EU Agreement on Cooperation in Science and Technology. The JSTCC is tasked with reviewing collaboration progress between the two parties, including SA participation in the Framework Programmes, sharing new developments in science and technology policy matters and devising strategies for enhancing future collaboration. "The sixth JSTCC meeting reconfirmed the strategic and very positive nature of the SA-EU S&T Partnership. ... expressed their satisfaction with the progress achieved during the past two years in promoting collaboration, noting a number of important successes being registered". The JSTCC specifically reviewed the progress achieved by ESASTAP. It was recognized that ESASTAP has been central to promoting SA's FP6 success and preparing for FP7.