The Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) : A public support mechanism for technological innovation in a developing country

Abstract

South Africa has since the dawn of democracy progressively built the science and research support components of the National System of Innovation (SANSI) with consistency. At national government level, science and technology developed from being a branch in the Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology in 1994, to a fully fledged Ministry ten years later. Investments were initially heavier in developing a sustainable research support system with encouraging results. A more recent set of reviews of progress with the development of the SANSI, including a comprehensive OEeD review, has catalyzed the development of a public sector irulOvation support system, the core of which is a new agency - the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA). The TIA has been established through the Technology Innovation Agency Act, as a public entity that will function as a key structural intervention to support government in stimulating and intensifying technological innovation and thereby enhance the country's capacity for local innovation and lessen dependence on imported know-how.