Science Councils Partnering with Private Sector – Summary

The review finds that as a group, the science councils are not effective in partnering with the private sector. Mintek is an important exception, as is the CSIR, to a lesser extent. For every R1 that government invests the science councils as a group, only R0.62 in private income is generated. (For Mintek, this ratio is 1:1.69 and for the CSIR, 1:1.04.) The international norm for this efficiency ratio is 1:1. While private income as defined in the study includes income from state-owned corporations, on aggregate this comprises less than 1% of total income of the councils. The analysis suggests that effective partnering between science councils and the private sector depends on two variables: i) the degree to which a council interprets sector partnerships as part of its mandate, and ii) the maturity and willingness of the relevant industry to partner with the council. This is determined in turn by the structure of the industry (e.g. mining vs pharmaceuticals) and the council’s efforts to maintain good partnerships. It is clear from the study that partnerships with the private sector have not been a sufficiently explicit policy objective. While this objective can fruitfully be pursued in a number of cases, government should note that it might not be an appropriate approach for all science councils.