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Monash South Africa launches partnership with the NRF

17 August 2010

On the left: Deputy President of the NRF, Dr Gansen Pillay, with Ass Prof Dina Burger, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor: Research at Monash South Africa.
On the left: Deputy President of the NRF, Dr Gansen Pillay, with Ass Prof Dina Burger, Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor: Research at Monash South Africa.

Monash South Africa, has celebrated a milestone in its history with the official launch on campus of its participation with the National Research Foundation (NRF).

At the launch, themed ‘Embarking on research excellence through collaborative partnerships’, were among others, the Deputy President of the NRF, Dr Gansen Pillay, and the Vice-Chancellor and President of Monash University, Australia, Prof Ed Byrne.

In his opening address Prof Tyrone Pretorius, Pro Vice-Chancellor and President of Monash South Africa, described the five-year journey that the institution and the NRF have been on to get to the point where: “We all reap the benefit of an NRF Board decision to provide Monash South Africa academics access to the services and funding streams of the NRF.”

He said: “This launch signifies the next stage in our development. The ball is now in our court as an institution, and we look forward to capitalising on our relationship with the NRF under the leadership of our Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor: Research, Prof Dina Burger, who has already done so much in bringing us to this point.”

Prof Ed Byrne said that it was a momentous day in the development and promotion of research excellence at the Monash South Africa campus.

“This research collaboration is the culmination of tremendous work by several people from Monash and the NRF. We are now positioning ourselves to do cutting-edge and relevant research on issues of concern in South Africa and the continent as a whole. A key component of research excellence is collaboration, and I call on all our all academics to make full use of this opportunity.”

In her address Prof Dina Burger said: “Since the establishment of the research portfolio at Monash South Africa in 2006,  the two most important goals have been to establish an institutional ‘research activeness’ that would over time lead to research excellence, as well as to identify strategic partnerships that could assist in achieving these aspirations.” 

We have since established partnerships with numerous universities (public and private higher education institutions) which will enhance the already existing research strengths that have developed at the campus in areas such as: water research; injury prevention and safety promotion; nuclear proliferation studies; cold war studies; development informatics; victimology; oil violence in the Niger Delta; HIV and AIDS related research; development informatics, etc.

“Early on we identified the NRF as a key facilitator of our aspirations, but discovered that as a private higher education institution we could not gain access to any of the services or financial streams available at the NRF.” 

“We then took a strategic decision to engage with the NRF on these matters and after a series of discussions and substantial submissions, the NRF Board approved our request.  This partnership will go a long way to increase research activity among the academics, which will ultimately lead to the achievement of our aspiration of research excellence.”