Fred Gault is a Professor Extraordinaire at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) in South Africa and a member of the TUT Institute for Economic Research on Innovation.
He works with the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as a member of the Management Team coordinating the OECD Innovation Strategy to be delivered in June 2010.
Prior to joining the UNU Maastricht Economic and Social Research and Training Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT), he held a Visiting Fellowship at the Canadian International Development Research Centre and, until April 2008, he was at Statistics Canada as the Director of the division responsible for the development of statistics on all aspects of research, development, invention, innovation and the diffusion of technologies, as well as on related human resources. He was also responsible for the development of statistics on telecommunications and broadcasting, Internet use, and electronic commerce. He was Chair of the OECD Working Party of National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators (NESTI) (2002–2008) and of the Working Party on Indicators for the Information Society (WPIIS) (1997–2002).
Before joining Statistics Canada, he was Senior Lecturer in Theoretical Physics at the University of Durham in the United Kingdom. He holds a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics and a B.Sc. (Econ.) from the University of London, and is a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and a Member of the British Computer Society.
His principal interest over the last twenty-five years has been the development and the use of statistical indicators in support of the policy process, particularly in the area of innovation. More recently, he has worked on innovation policy comparison and has contributed to the innovation and R&D survey work co-ordinated by the Office of Science and Technology of the New Partnership for Africa's Development. At UNU-MERIT, he co-ordinates case study work on innovation in a selection of African countries.