On the cusp of growth: one-year-old government-funded ICT research institute, the Meraka Institute, looks to expand its research leadership, and its local and African footprint too JUST A year old, and government`s Meraka Institute is already poised for growth. The ICT-focused national research institute is in the process of boosting its core research leadership, and is weighing its options for expansion in its quest to become a distributed national institute, reports Envir Fraser, manager of research development and funding.

"A year on, we`ve developed a good sense of our role and responsibilities, and now we need to grow. We`re looking at doubling the number of our studentships - which currently number 15 - every financial year. We need to advance the depth of our knowledge if we want to compete with the likes of China and India, and we need to keep our core research team challenged and interested," he explains.

These positions will be awarded to students who have completed their undergraduate degrees in a field relevant to the Meraka Institute`s research.

In addition to a core structure, which sees some 80 employees based at managing entity CSIR in Pretoria, the institute is in the process of setting up a Centre for High Performance Computing at UCT, and is mulling over the possibilities for expanding into KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape. And as if that wasn`t enough, Fraser indicates that the Meraka Institute soon plans to align its targets with the Department of Science and Technology`s three-year ICT research and development (R&D) strategy, currently being developed. "For this to be possible, we need the right quality of people to keep driving the institute," says Fraser.

IN THE BEGINNING...

President Thabo Mbeki first made known his vision for social and economic development by focusing on ICTs in his 2002 State of the Nation address. Following much consultation with government departments and his international advisory council, the idea of an advanced institute for ICT was formed, and the Meraka Institute was the product.

Its stated purpose is to develop human and intellectual capital for the benefit of the economy and to improve the quality of life all South Africans, and their Africans brothers and sisters, by undertaking and facilitating needs-based research and innovation in ICT.

"We don`t compete with universities - we work with them, because very often the people we want to employ need to be registered at a higher education institution," explains Fraser.

The institute`s activities currently revolve around four axes: a human capital development programme, an open source centre, technology research and application innovation.

"For us to achieve our vision, R&D has to happen at both the application and technology level," notes Fraser.

Application areas, which are informed by national priorities, are education, health, service delivery, e-government and financial services, for example.

Technology domains identified include ICTs for education and the disabled, wireless communication, and information society applications. Other specific technology programmes include Intouch, responsible for the development of software technologies that support SMME development; a high-performance computing programme, human language technologies research, ICT4Earth Observation, and the Open Source Centre.

A PUBLIC AND PRIVATE RESOURCE

"In the run-up to our founding, research indicated that the local ICT industry was driven by importing technology, as opposed to developing local technology. Although there have always been pockets of industry-led ICT research excellence, it was on a scale that wasn`t sustainable, and so we needed an institution to fill the gap between universities and industry, a support mechanism if you will."

"Our aim is to foster public-private collaboration. We have successfully engaged with SAP, for example, and are at an advanced stage of concluding an agreement with the SAP Research Centre, also based in Pretoria. We are looking at working with other multinationals on joint research programmes," he elaborates.

"We want to be a resource for industry, and not just the public sector. We want to assume some of industry`s R&D costs. R&D is an expensive business - especially for smaller companies," adds Fraser.

SA government funding accounts for some 80% of its multimillion-rand 2006/7 budget, with EU Framework and private sector funding accounting for the remainder. Moreover, once its structure is consolidated, the Meraka Institute intends broadening its focus geographically by joining the web of similar institutions the continent over. Already there are signs of cooperation: its human language technologies programme had some input from Nigeria, and in the field of wireless communications it has co-funded projects with Mozambique and Tanzania.

Its Open Source Centre has also met with much success, both at home and in Africa. Moving beyond its initial advocacy role, it is actively supporting the adoption of open source software by the public and private sector. And, since January, it has played host to the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (Fossfa) secretariat, previously based in Kenya.