SA and the UK have established the first three bilateral research chairs to strengthen research and innovation capacity between the countries.
Implemented by the National Research Foundation and the British Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the research chairs form part of the UK-SA Newton Fund science cooperation initiative the two countries launched in 2014.
According to the Department of Science and technology (DST), two of the chairs located at the University of the Western Cape and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University will focus on food security, while the chair at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) will focus on political science.
The British Council will fund the food security chairs to the amount of R1.3 million each, while the British Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences will fund the Wits chair to the amount of R1.7 million. These funds will be invested for a period of five years.
Minister Naledi Pandor says the research chairs are vital to SA's future prosperity and would help to encourage the best scientists to work in Africa.
"I anticipate they will contribute to SA's growing importance as a centre of science and innovation excellence, best illustrated by the 2012 decision for South Africa to co-host the Square Kilometre Array giant telescope," she says.
The research chairs are part of the already awarded 198 research chairs at SA's universities as part of the South African Research Chairs Initiative, which began in 2006, says the DST.
Through the initiative, SA and the UK will be able to increase the quality and production of masters and PhD graduates by supporting research excellence in response to key socio-economic and development priorities, according to the department.
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