College of Business and Economics | Annual Report 2021 49 addresses societal and environmental challenges. Since South Africa became a founding member of the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC) in 2017, a Community of Practice has been growing. The Trilateral Chair, the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), the Centre for Science, Technology, and Innovation Indicators (CeSTII/HSRC), and the Transformative Innovation Policy Consortium (TIPC) have been collaborating in a ‘policy experimentation lab’ to support the design of policy projects oriented to ‘transformative change’. Policy experiments have been initiated in areas such as water and sanitation, renewable energy, entrepreneurship, human settlements, and pre-school education. As part of this work, we collaborated to convene a colloquium on 13-15 October 2021, themed ‘Transformative Innovation Policy: Perspectives from South Africa’. The colloquium aimed to broaden and deepen the community of practice in the South African context and identify a common language for using and implementing the Transformative Innovation Policy. Moving forward, TIP SA will continue to work on broadening and deepening the national conversations around Transformative Innovation Policy. A concrete output from this activity has been the commissioning of a further phase of TIP work in South Africa, supported by the DSI. • UNESCO/SADC Science, technology and Innovation Policy Training Programme for High-Level STI Officials The training programme was delivered through the UNESCO Chair on African Integration and Innovation, at the Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa, in collaboration with SADC and UNESCO. Prof Kraemer-Mbula delivered modules on STI and Inclusive Development and the Fourth Industrial Revolution (October-November 2021). This training contributes to enhancing the knowledge of successive cohorts of parliamentarians and high-level officials across the African continent in the nature and policy implications of the systems of innovation approach to development. • “On the Pulse” Twitter Livestream In November 2021, the Chair launched a new series “On the Pulse” on Twitter Spaces. These are short audio sessions that target a wider audience to discuss current affairs related to innovation and development. The sessions have engaged with topics such as ‘The South African Municipal Elections mean for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy’; and ‘Unpacking South Africa’s energy crisis and Eskom’. These sessions provide an alternative means for public engagement and contributing to current affairs and debates. RESEARCH ACTIVITIES IN SUSTAINABILITY, INNOVATION AND THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (4IR) The Chair’s entire programme is designed at the intersection of these three areas: innovation, 4IR and sustainability. As such, all our activities contribute to generating knowledge and building capabilities in this nexus. Some of our research activities speak more directly to the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the SDGs, which are outlined below: • Firm-level survey on frontier technology adoption in South Africa. There is a lack of information on the patterns of adoption and use of frontier technologies in productive sectors in South Africa. The Chair is collaborating with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in a project named Frontier Technology Adoption, conducting a survey to capture firms’ deployment and the use of new technologies across three countries (South Africa, Tunisia and Ghana). The survey explores what sectors and firms are adopting frontier technologies, which parts of different value chains and how extensively they are diffused in the economy. The results will inform innovation and technology policies aiming to promote the use, adoption and adaptation of frontier technologies in South Africa. This survey is expected to lead to at least eight submitted publications in 2022. This work will feed into ongoing discussions in UNCTAD on the impact of frontier – including 4IR – technologies on international and regional trade. • During 2020, the Trilateral Chair collaborated with the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) to produce an edited volume that was published in January 2021, called Leap 4.0: African Perspectives on the Fourth Industrial Revolution, co-edited by Zamanzima Mazibuko-Makena and Prof Kraemer-Mbula as a collaborative effort with MISTRA. The book seeks to identify the challenges and opportunities the 4IR presents to South Africa and the rest of the African continent, especially to workers and marginalised sectors of society. It has been debated in policy fora such as the Science Forum South Africa in December 2021. The book has been reviewed in the South African Journal of International Affairs and was the subject of a seminar at the AfricaLics network which garnered over 30 participants from across the continent. • Innovation in the informal economy. The Trilateral Chair collaborates with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
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