South Africa's science and innovation sector lost R2.5bn when the US withdrew foreign funding, science, technology & innovation minister Blade Nzimande said on Tuesday as he released a ministerial working group report on the shortfall.

The report sets out immediate priorities: predictable domestic funding for strategic research programmes; protection of critical platforms in health, genomics, biotechnology and public-health systems; increased public and private R&D investment toward the national target of 1.5% of GDP; stronger co-ordination between government, universities, science councils, industry and provinces; and international partnerships that deliver fair terms on data, intellectual property, technology transfer, local manufacturing and skills development.

Nzimande framed the priorities as mutually reinforcing. Predictable domestic funding provides stability; stronger co-ordination reduces fragmentation; broader investment expands the resource base for science, technology and innovation (STI); and fairer partnerships build local capability, support industrial development and strengthen skills.

"Relying on foreign funding in place of domestic investment for critical parts of the national system of innovation exposes the country to unacceptable risks from geopolitical and economic competition, sanctions, trade wars, tariffs and policies that may conflict with South Africa's national interest," Nzimande said. "South Africa, therefore, needs a stronger, more resilient funding architecture and a firm commitment to protect public science infrastructure as a strategic national asset."

He added a caveat for researchers worried about isolation: "Scientific sovereignty doesn't mean isolation or a retreat from international collaboration."

The trigger

The working group was precipitated by a decision from Washington. In February 2025, President Donald Trump's executive order "Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa" stopped direct foreign aid, including an HIV treatment programme, based on unproven allegations about a so-called white genocide in the country.

The 2025-established working group assessed the impact of the terminated US funding on South Africa's major collaborative biomedical, health and clinical trial programmes, particularly those focused on HIV/Aids and tuberculosis. Its mandate covered the immediate and long-term effects on the national system of innovation, systemic risks from external funding dependencies, strategies to boost domestic public and private investment, and support for raising R&D expenditure from about 0.6% of GDP to the 1.5% national target — a roughly two-and-a-half-fold increase in real terms if GDP holds steady.

For R&D managers in South African universities and science councils, the 0.6% baseline is the number to watch. It signals the scale of the gap between current expenditure, which left collaborative clinical research exposed to a single foreign donor, and the stated policy goal.

Diversification, not decoupling

Nzimande said South Africa "can't avoid foreign funding entirely. We have to diversify. Our co-operation with China is increasing in leaps and bounds in terms of science, technology and innovation."

He said national STI policy must also respond to shifting funding priorities among other major partners — the US, the UK and the EU — as well as to geopolitical tensions, trade disputes and intensifying technological competition.

"Recent events have highlighted the risks of external dependence.… Uncertainty in the international funding environment raises a fundamental question: does the state have the capacity to meet the sovereign needs of its citizens?" he said.

The withdrawal, he argued, exposed a vulnerability "but it has also created an opportunity. Scientific excellence must be supported by financial resilience, institutional strength and strategic autonomy."

Nzimande positioned public science as central rather than peripheral: "Public science is not peripheral to national development. It is central to health and social security, industrialisation, economic prosperity, a better quality of life, peace and South Africa's contribution to global well-being."

"A better-funded, more resilient national system of innovation is vital to South Africa's interests and to confronting global challenges such as climate change, technological disruption and social inequality," he added.

Next steps

The cabinet has considered the report and approved its release for public comment until December 31. That consultation window gives research administrators, universities and industry stakeholders a concrete deadline to respond to proposals that could reshape how South African research programmes — especially the health, genomics and clinical-trial platforms the report flags for protection — are financed after the loss of US support.