Water, Sewage & Effluent November-December 2017 | Page 24

The National Water Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) Roadmap The National Water Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) Roadmap is a sector-wide plan to focus interventions in water research, high-end skills and innovation. From the Water RDI Roadmap Annual Report 2016/2017 Water sustainability is the key focus of the roadmap. T he Water RDI Roadmap has three pillars: research, human capacity development, and deployment of innovation, and includes development, testing, demonstration, positioning, and deployment of new solutions, know-how, and technologies. It is a partnership initiative 22 between the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), and the Water Research Commission (WRC). It is the key implementation instrument behind the Research and Development Chapter of the National Water Resources Strategy II. The Water Sewage & Effluent November/December 2017 coordinating, monitoring and evaluation function of the Roadmap is the Portfolio Management Unit (PMU). This unit is housed at the WRC. The WRC also hosts one of the key Roadmap Implementing instruments, the Water Technologies Demonstration Programme (WADER).