Question NW4131 to the Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation

Reply:

The Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) supports several cutting-edge scientific advances and innovations which enhance the country’s global competitiveness. Some of these scientific advances and innovations are in the areas of Precision Agriculture, Precision medicine, Nanotechnology, Hydrogen and fuel cell, as well as carbon capture and use, and are central to the modernisation approach of the key economic sectors (such as health agriculture, manufacturing and energy) outlined in the Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Decadal Plan.

PRECISION AGRICULTURE

The Decadal Plan prioritises modernising agriculture and the development of precision and digital agriculture tools that are key to increasing efficiencies in the sector as well as unlocking the bottlenecks with access to science-based decision information and thus inclusion for all farmers. The National Biosecurity Hub launched by the Minister together with his counterpart in agriculture, is a strategic platform prioritising cutting-edge research development and innovation as well as access to molecular and digital tools for diagnosis, detection, surveillance and management of major pests and diseases as well as food safety. The goal of the National Biosecurity Hub is to strengthen national biosecurity, using international standards in the development of national sanitary and phytosanitary systems (SPS), build technical and information management services and meet the SPS requirements of international trade. The hub will serve as a platform to:

• prevent, respond to and manage pests and diseases that threaten plant health, animal health, and food safety;
• conduct research on reported and emerging threats (e.g., biology/detection/diagnosis);
• develop a Biosecurity Information Hub to store and manage SPS and related information (monitoring and surveillance);
• promote engagements on SPS matters by establishing appropriate communication structures; and
• leverage human resources, financial resources, and infrastructure from public and private sectors to support the national biosecurity system.
  • The National Biosecurity Hub, coordinated by Innovation African@UP and co-funded by DSI and the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) is unlike any other globally as it is designed for a resource-constrained environment, and its hub and spokes model is designed to aggregate the benefits from individual commodity/government-industry co-funded multistakeholder and multi-institutional research programmes with a national biosecurity Information Hub that houses the consolidated digital surveillance information. The heat maps and long-term data monitoring is then accessible to DALRRD, which has the mandate for biosecurity and the system would also enable the prioritising of new research needed and building early warning systems.
  • The Hub includes linkages with major partners; for example in plant health with the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and all relevant universities in South Africa as well as industry partners such as GrainSA and Cropwatch Africa and allows for Integration of data that makes digital systems useful, for example the Biosecurity Africa app used to capture, store & visualise data and partnerships enable the flow of information (i.e. from Biosecurity Africa app to Information Hub.

b) The DSI encourages collaboration with:

(i) Academic institutions

The DSI has played a pivotal role in supporting the collaborative development of a Precision Agriculture Information System by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in collaboration with the ARC. This system is instrumental in de-risking the agricultural sector by furnishing farmers of all scales with data-driven insights that improve decision-making, optimise resource (water, fertilisers) utilisation, and address risks and threats associated with climate change, pests, and diseases.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Precision Agriculture Information System provides weekly information on soil and crop health conditions by integrating ground data collected nationwide and satellite data from the European Space Agency.

(ii) Industries

Based on the development of the Precision Agriculture Information System the DSI provides training for farmers and extension services affiliated with both DALRRD and the private sector to proficiently use the system for optimising crop production.

(iii) International partners

In terms of international partnerships, to foster the digitalisation of the agricultural sector in the SADC region, especially through the utilisation of the Precision Agriculture System, the CSIR has concluded a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Namibian Agronomic Board (NAD), promoting the exchange of knowledge and expertise.

2(a) PRECISION MEDICINE

This is an emerging field that utilises advanced technologies and data analysis to tailor medical treatment and prevention strategies to individual patients based on their unique genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors. The DSI, together with the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) has been driving the precision medicine initiative in South Africa since 2016. The Programme is aimed at addressing the significant healthcare challenges faced by South Africa, with a rising prevalence of non-communicable diseases like cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and cancer as well as host genomic influences on susceptibility to infectious diseases (HIV/ TB).

b) The DSI encourages collaboration with:

(i) Academic institutions

Precision medicine-funded projects are spread across universities and universities of technology in all the major provinces of Gauteng, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

(ii) Industries

Since 2016, the SAMRC/DSI has invested €14 million (Euro) in Precision Medicine projects. This small investment has resulted in spin-out companies and the development of products:

• Breast cancer screening, and other cancer-personalised approaches using organoid and omics technology.
• Infrastructure investments have led to fully capacitated labs that are now able to develop scaled genomics studies.
• Pharmacogenomics projects allow understanding of treatment failure with known drugs from the country’s essential drug list.

(iii) International partners

In terms of partnerships, the Precision Medicine Programme is actively seeking programme partners to drive this agenda to develop population-specific genomic studies to move Africa forward and offer an opportunity for the healthcare sector on the continent to incorporate the latest technologies to provide quality care and precision medicine options to African patients. The DSI/SAMRC has established and leveraged international partnerships to support emerging priority areas, namely precision medicine, and antimicrobial resistance.

The DSI/SAMRC play a significant role within the European Union- Africa Personalised Medicine (EU-Africa PerMed) Consortium, which has the final objective of integrating African countries into the International Consortium for Personalised Medicine (ICPerMed) programmes to contribute to the implementation of Personalised Medicine (PM) in the global context. This includes fostering joint precision medicine projects and programmes between Europe and Africa and strengthening bilateral EU-AU science, technology and innovation (STI) in health. In the long run, incorporating African countries in the global precision medicine research agenda can contribute to reducing existing health disparities between developed and developing countries, as well as facilitating access of African countries to new tools and technologies that have the potential to make healthcare more efficient and equitable.

3. NANOTECHNOLOGY

The ability to manipulate matter at the nanometre length scale has given birth to nanostructured materials with exceptional properties that were never observed for similar micro-structured and bulk counter-part materials. Such properties include high chemical and biological reactivities, high surface area-to-volume ratio, high mechanical strength, high electrical conductivity, high thermal conductivity as well as unique light scattering and absorption properties.

This cutting-edge technology offers several opportunities for development of the manufacturing sector with applications in water treatment, health and consumers materials such as cosmetics. Domination of markets is largely determined by speed to commercialisation of the nanotechnologies. South Africa and most African countries are lagging compared to other countries in Asia, Europe and America. The Nanotechnology market in the U.S. is estimated at US$16 Billion in the year 2020, and clearly this cannot be ignored. In response to this development the Department has initiated to drive the development of Nanotechnology in the country including the establishment of the Nanotechnology Innovation Centres, one at Mintek and the other at CSIR these focus on research that drives the development of commercial products. Some of the Industrial products developed at Mintek include the water filter systems for mine-water treatment, development of point of care diagnostic kits for detection of HIV, TB and lately Covid-19. The CSIR has developed commercial products which include plastics used in food packaging, cosmetics, and paint additives.

3(b) The DSI encourages collaboration with:

(i) Academic institutions

Nanotechnology research and education is spread across the country. The DSI supports postgraduate training through a master’s programme which is offered across four universities, the University of the Western Cape, University of the Free State, Nelson Mandela University and the University of Johannesburg. Research is funded across different institutions nationally, including the North-West University for research into health and safety assessment of nanomaterials, the Nanomedicine Platform at Nelson Mandela University and the Green Nanotechnology at the University of the Western Cape.

(ii) Industry

The Nanotechnology Innovation Centres collaborate extensively with industry with Mintek focusing on the mining sector and the CSIR broadly on the manufacturing sector. Several agreements are in place for the joint development of technology and provision of services to industry. The Nanomaterials Industry Development Facility (NIDF) was set up at the CSIR to assist the industry and SMME sector with scale-up and pilot facilities as well as characterisation for product development.

(iii) International partners

On international collaboration, the DSI has several active programmes in place such as the participation in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for the development of standards, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for safety aspects. There are also several agreements to stimulate collaboration between scientists in joint projects with several countries including the BRICS countries, as well as Egypt and Ethiopia in the current year.

4(a) HYDROGEN AND FUEL CELL, CARBON CAPTURE AND USE TECHNOLOGIES

The Decadal Plan identifies energy innovation as a priority area to support a diversified and sustainable energy mix that is secure, accessible and affordable. A stable and reliable energy mix is key to supporting economic recovery. The DSI has invested in the development of emerging energy technologies focused on local value addition and reducing the carbon intensity and greenhouse gas emissions of the country's energy mix, to mitigate the negative impact of climate change.

Investments have been made in the development of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies that leverage the country’s resource endowment in platinum group metals (PGMs), wind, solar and land availability to drive the transition to a low carbon and sustainable energy system. However, the transition to a low carbon economy needs to be just and equitable and have minimal negative impact on existing sectors.

In this regard, the DSI has invested in the demonstration of carbon capture and use technology to support the continued use of coal in power generation while reducing the emissions from the coal fired power plants. The carbon capture and use (CoalCO2-X) technology captures the flue gas pollutants (carbon dioxide (CO2), sulphur oxides (SOx), nitrogen oxide (NOx)) and converts them into value added products such as fertiliser, sulphuric acid and nitric acid, using low emissions hydrogen and ammonia produced from renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. The conversion of the flue gas pollutants into the value-added products used in agriculture and industry provides an opportunity to create new industries and jobs adjacent to the coal fired power stations, while preserving existing jobs in the coal sector.

The reduction of the carbon intensity in the energy mix will support the global competitiveness of South African made products, given the move by some trading partners such as the European Union to impose punitive taxes on imported goods based on their carbon content.

4(b( The DSI encourages collaboration with:

(i) Academic institutions

The DSI has supported the development of technologies along the hydrogen and fuel cell value chain under the Hydrogen South Africa (HySA) Programme through the Centres of Competence (CoCs) located at Universities and Science Councils. The leading Universities include North-West, University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape, while the Science Councils include Mintek and the CSIR.

To date, the HySA Programme has been able to train MSc and PhD graduates in engineering and related fields, publish in ISI journals, generate a healthy portfolio of Intellectual Property Rights, as well as develop prototypes and demonstrate them in real world environment. Furthermore, commercial products have been sold and trade secrets declared through Spin-off companies. PGM based catalysts and other components for fuel cells and electrolysers, as well as metal hydride-based hydrogen storage technologies have been locally developed that will position South Africa to be a significant player in the global hydrogen economy. A summary of the outputs from the HySA Programme include:

• 192 (MSc and PhD) graduates in engineering and related fields.
• 352 publications in ISI journals.
• 30 intellectual property rights filed.
• 15 intellectual property rights granted.
• 27 technology demonstrations in real world environment.
• 18 commercial products.
• 7 trade secrets declared.
• 3 spin-off companies.

On the carbon capture and use technology, the North-West University and University of Cape Town are working on the production of low emissions (green) hydrogen and ammonia, as well as the development of catalysts for the conversion of the captured carbon dioxide to low emissions diesel respectively.

(ii) Industries

The HySA CoCs have worked with industry partners such as Anglo-American Platinum, Sasol, Impala Platinum and Bambili Energy (small medium and micro enterprise (SMME)) in the development and deployment of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. The carbon capture and use technology has been successfully demonstrated at a Cement plant in partnership with PPC Cement and EPCM global (SMME).

(iii)International partners

In the Hydrogen Economy, South Africa is an active member of the International Partnership for Hydrogen and Fuel Cells in the Economy (IPHE) and is the current Chair of the IPHE. The IPHE is a governmental platform with 23 member countries, including the European Commission, and is dedicated to the development and sharing of information on the Hydrogen Economy, as well as to assist in the development of safety, codes and standards to promote the global trade in low emissions hydrogen. In addition, South Africa collaborates at bilateral level with several countries like Japan, Germany, United Kingdom and Germany.