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NACI News in 2008

CSSA Fellowship Award goes to SET4W Committee Member

Professor Judith Bishop received the 2008 Computer Society of South Africa Fellowship Award (CSSA), an award made in recognition of achievement and a long-term commitment to the objectives of the Society. Having joined the Society in 1974, Prof Bishop is one of the longest-standing members of the Society. She has represented the Society internationally, having been elected chair of the International Federation of Information Processing’s (IFIP) working group on Software Implementation Technology for two terms and also serving as programme co-chair of the IFIP World Computer Congress held in Milan in September.

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South African Science and Technology Indicators 2008

South African Science and Technology Indicators - 2008This report was prepared by the NACI Indicators Reference Group (IRG) and the NACI Secretariat.

The South African Science and Technology Indicators 2008, recently published by the NACI Indicator Reference Group provides an overall picture of South Africa’s national system of innovation by presenting statistical data relating to trends and performance.

The Minister of Science and Technology requested NACI to provide regular progress reports on the state of the NSI as a follow-up to the well-received NACI background report to the OECD country review. This important report and the OECD’s own report gave a considered view of South Africa’s innovation policy in 2006. NACI has included a high level diagnostic assessment of the NSI in its 2008/09 annual report using an indicator based approach. The most recently available indicator information was used. The current document provides a wider and deeper set of indicators that underpinned the work presented in the Annual Report.

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NACI Councillor at prestigious Innovation Awards Ceremony

The 2008 International Innovations Silver Award was presented to Ms Zane Wilson, Founder of the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG) and Ms Thuli Radebe, Executive Director of the Centre for Public Service Innovation (CPSI) and NACI Councillor.

The CPSI is part of the Ministry for Public Service and Administration, and responsible for the development of innovative, sustainable and responsive models for improved service delivery in the public sector. The CPSI supports South African innovations to enter this biennial initiative. Four South African innovations reached the semi-finalist stage.

NACI welcomes a new staff member

Rhudzani MailaMs Rudzani Maila joined the NACI Secretariat in October 2008 as a Specialist: Innovation Policy Analysis. Her responsibilities will include the identification of innovation priorities, evaluation of relevant information and conversion into policy advice.

Prior to joining NACI, Rudzani worked for the Centre for Environmental Economics and Policy in Africa (CEEPA), Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), and the Council on Higher Education (CHE), where the bulk of her work centered around the management of research projects aimed at policy advice and also stakeholder relations. She holds a BSc (Microbiology, Biochemistry, Botany) from the University of Venda, BSc (Medical) (Honours) in Microbiology from MEDUNSA and an MSc (Microbiology) from the University of Pretoria. Her MSc degree yielded a patent and co-authorship of two chapters in a microbiology textbook.