College of Business and Economics | Annual Report 2022 50 She also serves on the Steering Committee of the African Heterodox Economics Network, an initiative aimed at strengthening the heterodox economics movement in Africa and enhancing links and collaboration between various groups and individuals in this field across Africa; on the organising committee of the African Industrial Policy for the 21st Century (AIP21) network. She was appointed to the National Research Foundation (NRF) Reviews and Evaluations Standing Panel and is a member of the Scientific Committee of the African Programme on Rethinking Development Economics (APORDE), in which she is also a lecturer. As an elected member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), she served on four ASSAf bodies in 2022: the Standing Committee on Science for the Reduction of Poverty and Inequality; the Steering Committee on the Just Transition, the Membership Advisory Committee for Humanities and Social Sciences; and the Peer Review Panel: Economics and Business Management. She also served on editorial boards of various international journals and two international academic book series: ‘New Scholarship in Political Economy’ and ‘Critical Frontiers in International Development Studies with Oxford University Press, and one South African educational book series (HSRC Press). RESEARCH ACTIVITIES Researchers at SARChI-ID produced many outputs during 2022, including from our postdocs and international research associates. Our team published 41 journal articles, chapters, and one book. We expanded our Working Paper and Policy Brief series that we launched in 2021 to disseminate research, stimulate policy debate and identify collaborative policy-orientated solutions through new knowledge. Research by our team members was recognised through various awards and grants. For example, Dr Elvis Avenyo (Senior Research Associate) and Prof Tregenna won the “Overall Best Conference Paper Award” for their paper presented at the 2022 African Economic Conference (AEC), jointly organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The sections below give a flavour of some of our 2022 research projects. SUSTAINABILITY, INNOVATION AND FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (4IR) Many of our activities – research, capacity building, and public and policy engagement – are centred on sustainability, innovation and the 4IR. We approach sustainability issues around green industrialisation and green industrial policy. We seek answers for feasible development pathways to meet the dual objectives of industrialisation and environmental sustainability. Issues of innovation and the 4IR continued to drive themes of many activities during 2022. Many of these initiatives engage with the relationships between innovation, technological upgrading and industrial development; and with the patterns, possibilities, and prospects of 4IR technologies for industrialisation, growth and development. Our NRF-funded Community of Practice in Industrialisation and Innovation project, which concluded at the end of 2022, was organised around seven research themes: • Sub-sectoral dimensions of industrialisation and deindustrialisation internationally. • The effects of the 4IR on South African manufacturing firms and firm-level and policy responses. • Innovation and performance of small and micro manufacturing firms. • Learning, capabilities, and industrialisation. • Climate change, industrial development, a just transition and green industrial policy. • Developmental outcomes of innovation, industrialisation, and structural change. • Urban and spatial aspects of innovation and industrialisation. Primary data collection through surveys continued to be a key focus of our activities during 2022. Firstly, work continued on digital skills in the South African manufacturing sector, building on the digital skills survey run in 2021 in partnership with the IDTT. Data work during 2022 included integrating relevant data from selected Sector Education and Training Authority (SETA) databases, enabling newer understandings of the skills landscape within those sectors, including identification of scarcities of skills and, in some cases, skills mismatches regarding key technologies relevant to the SETAs. The IDTT held a research workshop on “Digital technologies and skills for structural transformation in South Africa: Experiences and challenges” with the DTIC in March and a second workshop on “Digitalisation, innovation and structural
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