South African R&D dropped 7.6% in first year of pandemic

Fresh national statistics underscore decline in country’s gross R&D spending

South Africa’s R&D spending saw a real-term drop of 7.6 per cent in the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a new report.

Collected by the Human Sciences Research Council and published on 18 January, the report measures public and private spending in South Africa for the financial year ending February 2021.