From 26 February to 16 March 2018, a number of sponsored activities will take place in South Africa and the UK to demonstrate the science partnership between the UK and South Africa
In the week of 26 February, the British High Commission in South Africa will sponsor an agritech mission to the UK to strengthen SA links with leading UK institutions, focusing on genomic research to increase crop yield.
This will be followed by an inward visit to South Africa by the Energy Systems Catapult for discussions around smart grid technology, a workshop run by Universities UK International and Universities SA/NRF to explore opportunities for doctoral training collaboration and a scoping mission to South Africa to identify opportunities for supporting innovation in South Africa and links with the UK’s innovation environment.
This will be followed by an inward visit to South Africa by the Energy Systems Catapult for discussions around smart grid technology, a workshop run by Universities UK International and Universities SA/NRF to explore opportunities for Doctoral Training collaboration and a scoping mission to South Africa to identify opportunities for supporting innovation in South Africa and links with the UK’s innovation environment.
From 1-3 March 2018, a Bio-Carbon workshop in Nairobi will bring together scientists from South Africa, Kenya and the UK.
In support of South Africa’s focus on the oceans economy, a visit is planned to some of the UK’s centres of excellence interested in working with South Africa in this area to explore opportunities.
Finally, the Newton Programme Task Force will meet in London to set the direction for the next few years of bilateral collaboration. Under the programme, which started in 2014, the South African Department of Science and Technology and UK Department of Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, agreed to jointly fund projects around human capital development, bilateral research programmes and activities supporting innovation and commercialisation.
Nigel Casey, british high commissioner to South Africa, said, “Science, technology and innovation co-operation has become a really exciting and dynamic part of the UK-South Africa partnership. I want to see that strengthen further, as we work together to build capacity and develop research excellence to address local and global challenges and prepare our economies for the future.”
