South African National Survey of Research & Experimental Development, 2007/08

Abstract

As part of the series of the National Survey of Research and Experimental Development (R&D Survey), the 2007/08 report has maintained the tradition both of substantively informing on national investment in scientific research activities and of providing the required data for monitoring levels of investment in R&D in South Africa. In particular, it provides the estimates of expenditure required for populating Indicator 10, expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP, in the Development Indicators 2009 publication by the Presidency. The report is also consistently aligned with the previous two R&D Survey reports (2006/07 and 2005/06), apart from minor adjustments to the sampling methodology in the not-for-profit sector. The minor adjustments involved the introduction of a short questionnaire, which was administered together with the usual long questionnaire, in order to collect the minimum information from those respondents that preferred a condensed version of the questionnaire to a long questionnaire. There are no noticeable contradictions either in the data provided or the trends between the results of the two questionnaires. The information coverage of the five sectors the business enterprise, government, higher education, not-for-profit and science council sectors is adequate. The methodology is adequate for the purpose, pending further refinement of sampling in the not-for-profit sector with support from Statistics South Africa. Given the very small size of the not-for-profit sector, relatively negligible bias in the results can be expected.