Page 161 - SAMRC Annual Report 2023-24

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

Similarly, for the number of awards to females MSc, during the last 10 years, more than 70% of awards
PhD, postdoctoral fellows and early career scientists, were granted to female beneficiaries and historically
122 awards were made against a target of 110, which disadvantaged individuals (including African black,
is 12% above the target. For the number of awards Coloured, and Indian). The SAMRC presence in HDIs
by the SAMRC to Black South African citizens and has also been consolidated with the launch of the
permanent residents MSc, PhD, postdocs and early RCD initiative by the SAMRC President and CEO
career scientists classified as African, 121 awards in 2015.
were made, which was 12% above the target of 110.
The number of awards by the SAMRC to MSc, PhD, RCD Scholarships Portfolio
postdocs and early career Scientists from historically The scholarships portfolio at RCD comprises five
disadvantaged institutions (HDIs), reflected a steady main scholarship programmes as listed in the figure
increase from 52 in 2021/22 to 60 in 2022/23, and 68 above. During this reporting period, RCD has also
awards in 2023/24 (annual target of 80). This reflects assisted with administration of the Chan Soon-
the SAMRC’s ongoing commitment to HDIs, in Shiong Family Foundation Scholarship Programme
particular through the RCD Initiative. which is aimed at building Biomanufacturing
Capacity in Africa. The scholarships programmes
RCD contribution to SAMRC revitalisation are aimed at developing and transforming health
and grant and scholarship transformation research capacity in SA. The funded scholars within
The SAMRC’s Division of Research Capacity our programmes are mainly health professionals.
Development (RCD) is one of the business units that By virtue of being employed in healthcare settings,
underwent a complete overhaul as a result of the health professionals are ideally placed to carry
2012 SAMRC revitalisation. Before the revitalisation, out clinically driven research, with an increased
the Division offered many small grants, wherein likelihood of research findings being taken up by
the smallest was R25,000 (twenty-five thousand policymakers, practitioners, and other potential
rands) for a technical grant, and the highest was users. The scholarship programmes have continued
R110,000 (one hundred and ten thousand rands) to make excellent progress in transformation and
for a PhD scholarship. Hence, one of the reasons strengthening research capacity. In 2023/24, RCD
for revitalisation was that the funding the Division supported 95 PhD and 4 MSc scholarships, of which
was offering was neither competitive nor impactful. 68% were awarded to female candidates and 67%
SAMRC restructuring led, in 2015, to the introduction to African black candidates. The distribution of
of a new and well-established division of RCD that scholarships by gender, ethnic group, and institution
runs streamlined and responsive programmes for 2023/24 are depicted in the figure below.
to identified national research needs, directly Due to the increased demand for PhD funding over
contributing to National Targets for research capacity the years, RCD has predominantly funded PhD
development and transformation. From 2014/2015 to candidates and prioritised MSc candidates who
2023/24, the number of RCD awards has increased are in strategic or scarce skills such as demography,
from 122 to 184, representing a 49% increase in the biostatistics and genomics. However, due to the
overall total number of awards. While the scholarship paucity of statisticians in South Africa, RCD has
awards initially comprised 97% of RCD awards, since only been able to recruit a handful of candidates
2015/2016 research career development awards were specialising in biostatistics across RCD scholarship
introduced to effect research career development and programmes. It has become clear that there is a
student supervision, with the latter comprising 69% need to attract other disciplines in health research
of RCD baseline budget in 2023/24. Since 2014/2015, such as statistics, data science, engineers and
the individual award amount has been increased in computer science for the purpose of solving the most
both scholarships from R110,000 to R266,000 and pressing and complex health challenges that require
RCD grants from R25,000 to R488,000. Overall, RCD, an interdisciplinary approach, such as developing
with the support of the SAMRC President/CEO, has diagnostics and medical devices and epidemiological
been a vital instrument for effective transformation modelling. Although the importance of biostatistics
in funding since the beginning of the revitalisation in conducting and translating health research into
in 2015. For both scholarships and career awards, clinical benefit has always been known, the paucity

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