154  No. 50741 GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 31 May 2024 Policy Interventions 15.7.1. The Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), in collaboration with the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies (DCDT), shall be responsible for research and development (R&D) on big data and cloud computing, in alignment with the business model for data and cloud research as articulated in the White Paper on Science, Technology, and Innovation. 15.7.2. The government shall increase R&D spending with a focus on supporting innovation and technology development. Additionally, the Technology Innovation Agency shall be adequately funded and capacitated to support South African innovators. 15.7.3. Academia, research institutions, industry, and innovation hubs must collaborate with the government in R&D, exploiting new technologies to build world-class data centres and cloud capabilities. Policy proposal 15.7.4. South Africa must continue to encourage investment in R & D. 15.8. Governance and Institutional Mechanisms Data governance refers to the exercise of authority, control, and shared decision-making, including planning, monitoring, and enforcement, over the management of data assets within one organization or across different organizations that share common data assets (OECD, 2019). A data governance model must support existing and new processes to ensure the proper management, protection, production, and usage of data throughout its life cycle. This requires a collaborative and unified approach to managing valuable data assets. In this regard, developing a framework of ethical guidelines is crucial to eliminate biases associated with digital technologies. Additionally, the digital transformation of society and its resulting digital economy bring the emergence of various digital technologies which, if not properly monitored, could pose threats to the security and privacy of individuals. Although establishing a single regulator for developing conformance standards for digital technologies might not be feasible due to the diversity and sectoral spread of these 32 This gazette is also available free online at www.gpwonline.co.za