Community-driven innovation in a real-life context and collaboration between different stakeholders – these are powerful ingredients in the hands of Professor Marlien Herselman and the Living Labs research group at the CSIR’s Meraka Institute. Living Labs is recognised internationally as a methodology and an innovation approach that works well in a multidisciplinary context in various settings, such as urban                                and rural environments.

The Living Lab approach focuses on community-driven innovation and has the potential to change the perspectives and practices of various role-players involved in information and communications technology for development (ICT4D) initiatives. This paper includes lessons learnt by researchers at the CSIR's Meraka Institute on ICT4D and outlines the role of Living Labs in the South Arican innovation system.

CSIR research and development over the past four years confirms that exciting technological advances allow new concepts for persistent and ubiquitous surveillance to be turned into realisable radar-based innovations. The resulting richness and reach of information available can satisfy many surveillance requirements and provide an edge                                to commanders of real time operations.

It is far more effective to get industry to voluntarily take responsibility for their products at the post-consumer stage than regulate via legislation - simply compare the success of campaigns such as Collect-a-can, the Glass Recycling Company and PETCO with the government's attempt to regulate the recycling of plastic bags. Resource economics expert Anton Nahman looked at the sustainability and economic viability of current recycling projects concerned with packaging waste in South Africa.

Software media pipelines (e.g. image scalers and colour converters) require algorithms and tools for video processing. Researchers at the CSIR's Meraka Institute have released open source code in C++ with associated libraries and DirectShow-Filters on sourceforge.net