The department of science, technology and innovation has unveiled a bold plan to leverage science, technology and innovation (STI) in responding to pressing national and global challenges.
Deputy STI Minister Nomalungelo Gina briefed the portfolio committee on science, technology and innovation on the department’s 2026-27 annual performance plan (APP) this week.
Gina noted the plan is being tabled against a backdrop of a highly uncertain geopolitical and economic environment.
Priorities
This includes a constrained national fiscal outlook, a decline in South Africa’s expenditure on research and development as a percentage of GDP, and the recent withdrawal of United States funding from critical joint science projects.
Despite fiscal constraints, the department said it will continue prioritising the maintenance and upgrading of strategic science infrastructure.
This includes the Square Kilometre Array and the Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure, while mobilising resources for critical areas such as artificial intelligence (AI), energy security, space science, vaccine innovation and manufacturing, and Indigenous Knowledge Systems.
Strategy
Gina said the APP was not merely a compliance tool but a strategic instrument:
“Our 2026-27 plan builds on the momentum of key programmes implemented during 2025-26 and seeks to strengthen our capacity to raise the scale and impact of our programmes for the years ahead.”
Presenting to the committee, the department’s director-general Mlungisi Cele said it was planning in an environment defined by intersecting global pressures.
“We are planning in a global environment defined by intersecting and mutually reinforcing crises. These pressures are not cyclical, they require us to work differently as a national system of innovation.
“This is therefore a delivery year, with a clear focus on coordination, efficiency, and ensuring that every rand of public investment produces system-level impact.”
GDP
The department’s key priorities include driving South Africa towards the government’s target of 1.5% of GDP by 2030 for gross expenditure on research and development, strengthening policy coherence through structures such as the STI Presidential Plenary and the Inter-Ministerial Committee, and accelerating the transformation of the National System of Innovation by expanding human capital and the research workforce.
In addition, the department announced the rollout of 41 new research chairs, with a strong emphasis on supporting black and women scientists to build a more inclusive generation of researchers.
