A South African survey of metrics related to intellectual property and technology transfer at publicly financed research institutions has been conducted twice previously and the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA) has been appointed to conduct the third survey on behalf of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and the National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO).  The data and reports are intended to provide insight into the impact of the IPRFRD Act[1] and generally the performance of Offices of Technology Transfer (OTT) established in terms of the Act.

The project will collect data for the period 2019 to 2023 relating to Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer and OTT metrics for all “institutions” as defined in the IPR Act, which are Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Schedule 1 Institutions or Science Councils (SCs).  It will build on the Second National Survey that captured data between 2014 and 2018, published in May 2021[2] (“Survey 2”).

The outputs of this survey (which will take the form of both internal (to NIPMO and the DSI) and external reports, as well as a highlights brochure and videos) are intended to both inform the technology transfer community on general activity and performance in technology transfer within South Africa, but to also benchmark the performance internationally.

Data collected may be used by researchers to examine other trends and aspects of the innovation ecosystem and the data will support policy development, primarily with the DSI and the NIPMO, who provide significant levels of support for capacity development of OTTs and their staff.

The Technical Committee (TC) has been constituted to provide expert guidance on the definition of metrics and the scope of the data to be collected from all “institutions” as defined in the IPR Act, which are Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and Schedule 1 Institutions or Science Councils (SCs).  It will build on the Second National Survey that captured data between 2014 and 2018 (“Survey 2”) by capturing data for the period 2019 to 2023.

Members of the TC were selected from a diverse range of Offices of Technology Transfer (OTT) and Intellectual Property (IP) to have representation from larger and smaller institutions (in terms of IP Portfolio and office capacity), a science council and a technical university.  This will provide insights into the availability of information at institutions, types of outputs and any difficulties that may be faced when populating the South African Tech Transfer Survey III.

The Technical Committee will also review the collated data tables and graphics to assess their reasonableness and suggest modes of presenting the data and provide input to identify trends and noteworthy outcomes and insights. Members of the committee are:

Hamilton Mphidi – University of Technology (TUT), Fredrick Matongo – (CUT), Janine Chantson (NWU), Ana Casanueva (UWC), Cynthia Motsi (ARC), Mpumelelo Nkomo (WSU), Ayanda Noma (UNISA), Kgomotso Matjila (DSI), Jetane Weyers (NIPMO) and Andrew Bailey (SARIMA, and Project Lead).

Steering Committee, that will provide oversight and under specific confidentiality agreement, have access to the raw data received from institutions.  This is essential for data validation and interpretation.  The Steering Committee will include representatives from the DSI, NIPMO and SARIMA and will oversee the project and approve strategic matters.