Science, technology and innovation must never be understood as for the specialized elite divorced from society that it finds itself. - Trusty Gina

In the face of rapid technological change, as well as other drivers, human society is undergoing fundamental and accelerated change. Such change is particularly significant in the educational system (both basic and post-school) as well as in workplaces. In the current financial year, the DSI in partnership with the Human Resource Development Council secretariat will finalise the scoping of a well-designed observatory and mobilise key users and role players.

Honourable members, over the past two decades, a number of successful initiatives were put in place to facilitate the use of the available science for policy and action. Together with the Presidential Climate Change Commission, we will finalise the development of a medium-term climate change research and development roadmap.

Opportunities and challenges include persistently high levels of poverty and unemployment; the fact that our society remains one of the most unequal in the world; governance challenges, a maturing democracy, demographic shifts including a youth dividend, high-levels of crime including unacceptably high levels of gender-based violence. The above will be achieved through the establishment of National Research Institutes.