Page 41 - SAMRC Annual Performance Plan 2026-27

options or resources to fill the gap. This jeopardizes 9.3.11 Funding Research
the many advances made over the past 20 years in Research Capacity Development
4
the battle against HIV/AIDS” .
The SAMRC's Research Capacity Development
In addition to the emergency funding secured by programmes are streamlined funding mechanism
the SAMRC to fill the recent funding gaps, there is to support the growth of health research capacity,
a need for continued efforts to secure additional by offering multiple strategic capacity development
diversified funding to ensure protection of research grants and career awards in the national research
participants against harm, especially in such similar priorities and directly contributing to the national
instances where projects are prematurely terminated. targets for research capacity development as well as
In addition, SAMRC will explore with its HREC on transformation.
possible ethical wind-down strategies that could be
implemented to ensure that research participants Research Grants
are not suddenly left without access to care and that The SAMRC's Grants Innovation and Product
research data is managed appropriately. Development Unit (GIPD) manages a number
of research grant programmes, many of which
9.3.10 Publication in Open Access journals
The SAMRC appreciates the importance of open are delivered in partnership with other local and
access to science and research and has since joined international funders, that support discovery
cOAlition S, a platform created for accelerating research within the SAMRC’s key priority areas.
the transition to full and immediate open access Innovation
to scientific publications. A guiding document of
cOAlition S is the Plan S, which aims for full and The SAMRC supports health innovation, through
immediate open access to peer-reviewed scholarly strategic partnerships and grants managed by
publications from research funded by public the GIPD. These are aimed specifically at product
and private grants. In addition to the scholarly development and technology platform support.
publications, cOAlition S also encourages that
research data and other research outputs should be The Strategic Health Innovation Partnerships
made open as possible and closed as necessary. (SHIP), hosted by the SAMRC and supported
by the Department of Science, Technology and
At the end of the 2024/25 financial period, about Innovation (DSTI), funds and manages innovation
eighty percent of the publications from the SAMRC projects focused on the development of new
affiliated researchers and those researchers that drugs, treatments, vaccines, medical devices and
acknowledge support from the SAMRC were prevention strategies. SHIP forms part of the GIPD
published in open access journals. While these directorate and is the key driver of innovation
statistics are encouraging, there is a need for the through the SAMRC-DSTI partnership.
SAMRC to put strategies in place to ensure that
all research publications emanating from research 9.3.12 Support for the South African National
either partially or fully funded by the SAMRC are Health Research Enterprise in Response
to USA Funding Withdrawals
published in open access journals and that final South Africa stands at a critical juncture in its public
accepted and/or published outputs are deposited health and biomedical research trajectory. One of
in the SAMRC Institutional Repository. the greatest success stories from South Africa has
been the development of a high-calibre cadre of
clinicians and scientists who have led pioneering
scholarship that has been impactful, not just for
South Africa, but for the whole world. For decades,

4 The impact of United States Government cuts to funding on South African Healthcare and Research – ScienceOpen.
Accessed 21 January 2026

SAMRC ANNUAL PERFORMANCE PLAN 2026/27 39