College of Business and Economics | Annual Report 2022 46 DSI/NRF South African Research Chair in Industrial Development Prof Fiona Tregenna Chair: DSI/NRF SARChI in Industrial Development College of Business and Economics OVERVIEW 2022 was another exciting and productive year for the DSI/NRF South African Research Chair in Industrial Development (SARChI-ID), extending and building on our previous range of fruitful collaborations, innovative and impactful research, and new initiatives. Our activities have centred on the following: • Undertaking research of high quality and impact. • Building capacity through postgraduate supervision, additional training of our postgraduate students and broad capacitybuilding beyond the university. • Policy development and public engagement contributions. Central themes of our work during 2022 have included: structural change, industrialisation, deindustrialisation, the fourth industrial revolution (4IR), innovation, technology intensity and technological upgrading, the green transition, trade, regional integration, political economy, and industrial policy. The domains of the work have ranged from the locality of Johannesburg to national, regional, continental, and global. A key focus of our activities was the Community of Practice (CoP) in Industrialisation and Innovation, which supported extensive research collaborations driving inter-, trans-, and multi-disciplinary research that creates new knowledge and contributes to a rigorous evidence basis for policy, which we completed at the end of 2022. Another pillar of research and policy engagement has been the Industrial Development Think Tank (IDTT), which is a partnership between the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), SARChI-ID and the Centre for Competition, Regulation and Economic Development (CCRED), and is hosted at CCRED. For the first time, we became a partner in the Industrial Policy for Policy Makers (IPPM) programme to build capacity among policy makers across Africa. In terms of research, our team has collectively published 41 peer-reviewed journal articles and one book, as well as several book chapters, working papers and other research outputs. Our collaborations have achieved a global footprint across African, European, South American, North American, and Asian countries. Our research explored topics such as: digitalisation in the skills landscape, dynamics of 4IR technology adoption in manufacturing, green industrialisation and green industrial policy, trade integration across Africa, and innovation in small and micro enterprises in Johannesburg. We hosted, co-hosted, or partnered in several major engagement events, including the Second Young Scholars Conference on Structural Change and Industrial Policy in Africa; the Industrial Policy for Policy Makers (IPPM) programme; the 2022 TIPS Annual Forum themed “Towards a Just Transition”; the Rethinking Economics for Africa (REFA) Festival; an international workshop on the topic “Green Industrialisation in Africa: The Critical Issues”, and several public lectures. This is in addition to many impactful seminars, webinars, colloquia, symposia, and book launches, one of which featured President Cyril Ramaphosa as the keynote speaker.
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