South African National Survey of Research and Experimental Development: main trends in South Africa R&D 2022/2023: recovering from Covid-19

The COVID -19 pandemic triggered a sharp contraction in economic activity, with GDP declining by 6.4% in 2020/21. However, it also spurred the unprecedented mobilization of R&D resources, particularly in health innovation, digital infrastructure, and crisis-responsive technologies. Despite this, growth in overall gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) remained fragile, with a modest recovery to 2.1% in 2022/23, closely mirroring GDP growth of 1.9%. This recovery, however, masks underlying vulnerabilities, as pre-pandemic structural challenges—such as stagnant private-sector R&D investment and reliance on volatile public funding—persist.