National Research Foundation

Divisions:
KFD

In 2004 following consultations with various countries and experts, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and The National Research Foundation (NRF) launched the DST/NRF CoE Programme. The initiative was to focus primarily on South Africa. At the same time, the NRF anticipated to actively pursue collaboration with bi-lateral and multi-lateral initiatives aimed at developing and linking into similar Centres across the African continent as well as with similar initiatives linked to capacity building through north-south collaborative ventures. Other government departments and business organizations have expressed interest in establishing and funding centres of excellence within the same DST/NRF CoE model and to be managed by the NRF.

The CoEs are established and funded so as to:

1. Exploit the competitive advantage vested in outstanding researchers;

2. Reward, retain, sustain and improve scientific excellence;

3. Integrate smaller and related research initiatives into one programme;

4. Achieve economies of scale through the optimization of resources and effort by sharing personnel, equipment, data and ideas;

5. Provide secure and stable funding for research and knowledge dissemination;

6. Support planned, strategic, long-term research;

7. Reduce micro-management of academic and their resources by the funding agency.

The aims of individual centres of excellence are:

1. Promote knowledge and human capital in areas of strategic importance to South Africa;

2. Promote collaborative research;

3. Develop interdisciplinary research;

4. Systematically develop a creative research training environment that is internationally competitive;

5. Strive for the highest standards of quality, international competitiveness and esteem of their science;

6. Diffuse knowledge to where it is needed.

To achieve the above aims all CoEs are expected to address the following primary and generic key activities and services:

The DST/NRF Centres of Excellence (CoE) Programme