R1.2bn injection for science, tech

By Leon Engelbrecht, ITWeb senior writer

Johannesburg, 23 Feb 2007

SA's scientific and technology community was a major beneficiary of this week's budget speech, with an additional R1.2 billion being allocated to this sector of the economy.

Finance minister Trevor Manuel said on Wednesday that R500 million would go to support SA's bid to host the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) - a series of enormous telescopes across the Northern Cape that will record radio waves to examine the origins of the universe.

Professor Robin Crewe, president of the Pretoria-based Academy of Science of SA, says the investment is "a visionary step and absolutely essential".

He adds: "The SKA is going to have a very significant set of spin-offs in terms of developing high levels of communication capacity. It will also generate a whole set of opportunities for people to develop high-technology solutions for a knowledge economy."

Crewe, who is also vice-principal of the University of Pretoria, points out that Manuel also budgeted R95 million to provide low-cost broadband links for the local academic community.

"The research network mentioned by the minister is critical to foster research in important fields such as radio astronomy and biotechnology and other data-intensive areas of research."

He is also pleased with Manuel's decision to allocate R60 million to fund the positions of science research chairs at universities.

"Science research chairs will allow people to focus on generating new knowledge and new discoveries. They are absolutely critical for developing the next generation of scientists and engineers who are going to underpin the economic development that everyone is hoping will take place. They will build the next generation of young scientists."

Francois Denner, director of the National Aerospace Centre of Excellence, says much of "the technology required to make that array work does not yet exist". Developing it will be a challenge, he notes.

"There are probably a few Nobel prizes [awaiting those who] develop the required focal plane arrays and sensing systems," he adds.

Denner says "the big problem" remains the high-performance computer power needed to process the vast amount of data the SKA will capture.