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As part of a bilateral R3-million Scientific Seminar Scheme between South Africa and the UK, the South African Department of Science and Technology and the UK Department of Business Innovation and Skills will host a South Africa-UK Science and Technology Workshop to enhance research collaborations between both countries.
The £200 000 workshop, which would run from February 10 to 11, in Cape Town, would see 75 scientists, researchers and officials identifying shared and specific areas of research interest, relevant for potential future collaborations, while exploring new and existing funding mechanisms to support ongoing research.
It would also present an opportunity for the two countries to identify and make recommendations for future [national] collaboration on science and technology.
Science and Technology Minister Derek Hanekom and his UK counterpart David Willetts agreed upon the overarching bilateral scheme at the 2013 South Africa-UK Bilateral Forum.
At that meeting, and during a follow-up visit by Hanekom to the UK in January, both Ministers agreed to deepen the countries’ science and technology relationship and on the shared priority areas of astronomy and space, climate change, biosciences and health research.
The workshop, which would be run by the Royal Society and the National Research Foundation (NRF), would be opened by NRF CEO Dr Albert van Jaarsveld and Cape Town-based British Consul General Chris Trott.