Introduction | Assumptions | Vision, mission, values and culture | Challenges |
Priorities | Competencies | Objectives

Strategic plan, 2005 - 2010

Underlying assumptions

• The MRC Strategic Plan 2005 - 2010 sets the strategic direction for the organisation. The current research structure and systems will be transformed through implementation of the new MRC research strategy and the transformation and development strategy.
• The MRC will continue to conduct relevant, responsive and excellent health research.
• The MRC will maintain its emphasis on knowledge generation in all spheres of health research from basic to applied. This encompasses the broad disciplines of human health research: laboratory, clinical, public health, policy and implementation.
• This research will be conducted in a co-ordinated and integrated fashion through the MRC national programmes, units and projects.
• The research will continue in both intramural and extramural environments, with an emphasis on research collaborations with universities as these are the institutions in which much South African health research is conducted and students are trained.
• The MRC remains the leading health research institution in South Africa and is the only health research institution that is truly national.
• The MRC will continue to evaluate and manage intra- and extramural research in a similar manner in terms of peer review and five-yearly unit reviews.
• The MRC will meet the requirements of current corporate governance frameworks within the national science system of South Africa while maintaining its relative autonomy as a parastatal organisation.
• The MRC's research and research funding will continue to focus on those areas of national priority in which the MRC has global comparative advantages, along with strong local impact and relevance. These include transdisciplinary and trans-sectoral research partnerships.
• The MRC will work closely with its line department, the NDOH, for various reasons. Firstly, because NDOH is the source of 50% of the MRC's funding (the most sustainable portion of the MRC budget). Furthermore, the MRC research priorities, Business Plan and Annual Report are tabled through the NDOH. Finally, the NDOH is the primary agent through which the MRC can achieve its vision of 'building a healthy nation through research'.
• The MRC will strengthen relationships with other line departments such as the Department of Science & Technology (DST) to ensure its optimal place and role in the National System of Innovation.
• The MRC continues to experience difficulty in retaining scientific and managerial staff in the face of globalisation and will have to play a greater role in research capacity development and staff retention.
• The MRC will advocate for an increase in health research expenditure as a percentage of government expenditure to meet the target of 2% set in the Mexico Declaration of 2004 and the World Health Assembly of 2005. A doubling of the MRC baseline budget is needed to address all South Africa's health research priorities adequately, and a trebling is required if the MRC is to fully exploit the opportunities in health research and biotechnology that arise. New baseline posts or research initiatives will need to be created from a reallocation of resources and the closure and/or rationalisation of existing structures.
• The MRC will continue to grow its external income (currently at 50% of total income) through contracts, grants and commercialisation of intellectual assets, as well as by growing its share of local competitive public funding such as the Innovation Fund, DST Centres of Excellence, DST/NRF Research Chairs Programme, etc.
• South Africa has great opportunities to develop niches in biotechnology associated with human health and the MRC, with its extensive intellectual property portfolio and biotechnology platforms, is well placed to exploit these opportunities.
• The SETIs (the Science, Engineering and Technology Institutions) and universities will put increasing emphasis on the management and commercialisation of intellectual property and the MRC will need to identify, protect and exploit its research portfolio on behalf of the people of South Africa.
• The MRC will grow its biotechnology portfolio in collaboration with other science councils such as the CSIR and ARC and will seek to create 'spinout companies' using the intellectual property it generates.
• The MRC will continue to play a leading role in information and communication technology applications for human health as well as computing science and bioinformatics applications.
• The MRC embraces the goals of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). These include increasing emphasis on health research relating to social development. Partnership programmes will be initiated focusing on the specific health problems of the African continent.
• The MRC will need to tap into global developments in health and health research. These include the doubling of aid to Africa by the G8 countries targeted at an extra US$25 billion by 2010, some of which is targeted towards the provision of universal access to treatment for HIV and AIDS; initiatives to expand prevention and treatment of malaria; the possible formation of a Global Health Research Cooperative; the Global Vaccine Enterprise; the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development; and, the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Programme.