South Africa’s R&D Survey Shows Why a Bigger Cash Budget Can Still Mean Less Research

Saturday 31st October 2026

By inAfrika Newsroom

South Africa spent more rand on research and development in 2024/25, yet the money bought less research after inflation. The latest national survey puts that tension alongside weaker business investment in sectors central to African industrial development.

The Human Sciences Research Council’s release, dated 28 October, reports expenditure of R44.237 billion. Inflation-adjusted spending fell 1.9%, while research expenditure’s share of gross domestic product slipped from 0.62% in 2023/24 to 0.60% in 2024/25.

The distinction matters when assessing innovation budgets. A larger cash total can coexist with reduced purchasing power, while the GDP ratio measures research effort relative to the economy rather than the effectiveness of individual projects.

Business research spending fell R742 million to R14.369 billion, with mining and quarrying, manufacturing and agriculture driving the reduction, according to the HSRC. Its findings were also reported by Inside Politics on 30 October.

Higher education moved in the opposite direction, increasing expenditure by R919 million to R16.713 billion. Universities accounted for 37.8% of national research spending, compared with business’s 32.5%, but the figures do not establish that university activity replaced the specific industrial work businesses reduced.

That is a practical distinction for manufacturers and agricultural processors. A laboratory finding still needs development work, production trials and a viable route into operating equipment or a commercial product; spending in one part of that chain cannot automatically substitute for another.

The survey also reports a growing research workforce, with total research-and-development personnel reaching 90,608. Rising staff numbers alongside falling real expenditure therefore present a mixed picture, rather than a simple collapse or expansion of national research capacity.

Regional partners considering agricultural research cooperation can use the findings as a reminder to examine who funds development and who carries a result into production. The next useful evidence will be whether subsequent surveys show business investment recovering, alongside demonstrable industrial applications.

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