Speaking to Channel Africa on Monday, TIA Board Chairperson Loyiso Tyira said the agency has recently facilitated strategic partnerships through Memoranda of Understanding with key science councils and industry stakeholders. The aim is to reduce fragmentation in the national system of innovation, where strong research output has not consistently translated into scalable products, new industries and jobs.
Tyira said SA’s challenge is often not a lack of policy, but a gap between policy intent and what happens in practice. “We do not find issues with policy. The gap is between policy intent and what actually happens on the ground,” he said. He added that reviews initiated by the Minister and National Treasury have pushed TIA to play a broader role beyond funding, positioning the agency as a “curator” of the innovation ecosystem.
According to Tyira, innovation is central to economic growth and employment, warning that without stronger innovation performance, jobs will be created elsewhere and SA will become increasingly dependent on imported goods. “Innovation is key to economic growth and job creation, without which jobs get created elsewhere, and we import goods and industrialisation suffers,” he said.
TIA’s approach is anchored in what Tyira described as the quadruple helix model, which focuses on linking the full innovation value chain from academic research to commercialisation and market deployment. This includes enabling small businesses and industry players to access existing intellectual property and develop it into products and services.
TIA is prioritising strategic sectors aligned to SA’s decadal planning, including critical minerals, the digital economy, agriculture, advanced manufacturing and biotech. Tyira said programmes are being built around these areas to support small, medium, and micro enterprises’ participation and strengthen pathways from innovation to industrial development.
He argued that innovation-led industrialisation is essential to reducing unemployment and improving competitiveness. “As you innovate and build new industries and export more than you import, you create value internally,” he said, adding that innovation can also help solve service delivery challenges through locally designed solutions.
TIA says its partnerships are intended to accelerate implementation, deepen collaboration between government, researchers and the private sector, and ensure that SA innovation translates into tangible economic outcomes.
–ChannelAfrica–
