SA running out of scientists

SA is running out of its best scientists, warns science and technology minister Naledi Pandor.

Speaking at the 14th NationalScienceandTechnologyForumAwards last night, the minister said this warning had to be issued amid the celebration of winning the majority of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope bid. “We are running out of our best scientists. Or rather they are running out on us.”

She added that the alarming statistic is that halfofSA'sprofessorsandassociateprofessorsareduetoretireinthenextdecade. “This is alarming, because these over-50-year-olds now produce five in 10 of our scientific papers. Back in 1990, the over-50-year-olds only produced one in 10 of credited publications.”

SA must develop strategies to respond to this potential loss of skilled professionals, she noted.

Pandor said that while the retiring scientists will not be lost to science, they will be lost to the universities and to teaching the next generation of scientists.

“The retirement scenario is frightening for knowledge creation in our universities. We have not prepared adequately for their replacement. Over the past decade, postgraduate student enrolments and the number of masters and doctoral graduates have not grown fast enough.”

Improving staff qualifications at universities and science councils forms an important part of developing human capacity for research, scholarship and innovation, adds the minister.

“We have particularly earmarked our new human resource development allocations to increase support for the next generation of researchers. SA has talent, a lot of which we waste. We do that because not enough women become scientists. We have to devise creative strategies for attracting young people and women into science.”

“We need tools and strategies that are targeted at providing a firm foundation for expanded success and increased graduation rates.

“In addition, we must create institutions to utilise and absorb the talent we produce. There have been some inaccurate statements about unemployed graduates. Research shows those with degrees stand a better chance of employment and enterprise formation.”

The country needs a larger science infrastructure base to absorb young talent. The department's internship programme is directed at creating increased opportunity and experience for young scientists and technologists.

For this reason it has set aside R110 million over the 2012/15 Medium Term Expenditure Framework for an internship programme. The R30 million funding for the first two years of the programme will allow it to almost double the number of interns it is currently funding.

SA only has a fraction of the researchers that Australia has. Australia is sharing the SKA project with SA, with roughly two-thirds being placed in SA and the rest in Australia.

Australia has one-third of our population, spends 2.2% ofGDPonR&D, has 93 000 researchers, and began to invest in radio astronomy in the 1960s. SA spends under 1% on R&D, has 15 000 researchers and began to invest in radio astronomy in the 1990s, according to Pandor.

“Our success in securing the bid confirms the excellence we have in the astronomy sciences and recognises the strength of the SKA team.

“What really excites me about being one of the successful bidders for the SKA is the potential it unleashes to encourage a greater interest in scientific careers among the youth and the potential it offers to leverage greater investment in science directed at economic growth and social innovation.”

She also said the department has used its collaboration with the international SKA consortium to attract young people into science and technology careers.

“We are collaborating actively with some of the best universities and institutions in the world. Our young scientists and engineers have been able to jump to a leading role in many of the areas of development of the SKA, because of the excellent skills imparted by our universities, and the expertise and experience that they have picked up from our partners.”

SA's SKA team now plays a leading role, for instance, in the CASPER (Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research) initiative, which has produced the ROACH(Reconfigurable Open Architecture Computing Hardware) processingboards that provide digital signal processing equipment for the telescopes.

This began as a design solution for SKA in SA and now has collaborators in universities on every continent.

“SKA is going to generate a new industry in information communication technologies. We will train software engineers, data processors, system analysts and hundreds of technicians,” said the minister.