UTILISATION OF RESEARCH FINDINGS EXTENT, DYNAMICS AND STRATEGIES

This document reports on a comprehensive study on the extent and nature of the
utilisation of South African research findings, and suggests strategic steps to improve such utilisation. This report will serve as a basis for the recommendation
of policy guidelines to government, research funding agencies and institutions in
the national system of innovation.

The study aimed to address these and related issues in the first comprehensive
quantitative and qualitative study of its kind in South Africa.

The study was designed to provide empirical evidence of the extent and dynamics
of research utilisation, as well as strategies for improvement. It consisted of the
following four sequential phases:
• An extensive analysis of the literature and the development of a conceptual
model, namely, a network model of knowledge utilisation; research utilisation was conceived as outcomes that could take different forms, such as scientific utility (for example, applied research), economic utility (for example, development of technology) and socio-political utility (for example, inputs to policy development).
• A web-based survey of the utilisation behaviour of approximately 11 000
researchers in institutions receiving public funding for research in higher education and the science council system; more than 2 000 completed questionnaires were returned.
• Telephonic interviews on utilisation behaviour in 112 top South African companies.
• In-depth case studies of 12 major research projects.
• Three sets of strategies for the improvement of the utilisation of research findings were subsequently developed from the above information base by three different agencies using different methodologies.
• Finally, a synthesis report was compiled through an iterative interactive approach among the consortium of researchers and NACI.