South Africa’s Minister of Science and Technology, Mosibudi Mangena, today announced a second cohort of 51 Research Chairs.doc in an initiative aimed at invigorating research and human capital development in the country’s National System of Innovation (NSI).

The South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI), launched in December 2006 with the announcement of 21 research chairs, is intended to boost research capacity by attracting world-class researchers to South Africa.

Minister Mangena said that the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) had developed SARChI to retain and attract qualified research scientists, reverse the decline in the country's research outputs, focus capacity at publicly-funded higher education institutions, science councils and research institutions, and contribute to stimulating strategic research across the knowledge spectrum.

The main aim of the initiative is to grow high-level research capital and production capacity in the higher education sector, and of the 51 research chairs established, 16 (i.e. 33%) are new in the South African higher education sector.

Some candidates come from local industries and science councils, and others from countries as diverse as Ethiopia, Nigeria, Kenya, Germany, Sweden, United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands.

The Minister said that the strategy to turn South Africa's brain drain to brain gain was bearing fruits.

He added that, so far, 36% of the candidates appointed to research chairs were black.  The target was to have 60% of research chairs black and 50% female.

It is envisaged that the programme, which has already been allocated R200 million, will produce 210 research chairs by 2010, developing targeted research capacity in support of the National Research and Development Strategy and other national initiatives.

“The 51 research chairs announced today are a remarkable achievement, bearing in mind that the plan was to announce 35 research chairs at this stage of the initiative,” said Minister Mangena, as he praised the initiative’s success in delivering so much more and so much sooner than expected.

The NRF CEO and President, Prof. Mzamo P Mangaliso, said SARChI would change the face of research in South Africa.  “Our National System of Innovation is a complex system that is relied upon to help South Africa compete in the global knowledge economy, and SARChI constitutes a positive impact on research in the country.”

He said interventions such as SARChI and the Centres of Excellence would steer, guide and shape the NSI's delivery on its objectives.

“The National Research Foundation is only too pleased to partner with the Department of Science and Technology on this important initiative,” added Prof. Mangaliso, acknowledging that while the establishment of 72 chairs was a material step forward, establishing the remaining 138 would take hard work.

Already, 59 MSc and PhD students have received DST-NRF bursaries, and are studying under the guidance of the 21 research chairs announced last year.

Research chairs have been awarded in disciplines as diverse as Poverty and Inequality Research, Urban Policy, Customary Law and Indigenous Values, Migration, Language and Social Change, Astrophysics and Space Science, Nanophotonics, and Immunology of Infectious Diseases in Africa.

SARChI's impact will be assessed through research performance outputs and human capital development achievements, particularly as they relate to the transformation of the country's scientific and technological workforce.

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Issued by the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation.

For media enquiries contact:

Celeste Tema

Deputy Director: Communication and Media Liaison,

The Department of Science and Technology, @ 012 843 6784, 083 399 0765 or celeste.tema@dst.gov.za.

Or

Maupi Monyemangene

Media Liaison Officer: National Research Foundation, @ 012 481 4068, 082 447 3232 or maupi@nrf.ac.za.