| The South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) of the NRF is a strategically focused knowledge and human resource intervention that has five interrelated objectives: -
To increase the number of world class researchers in South Africa, -
To retain and/or attract back qualified research scientists to the Higher Education sector and thereby: -
To
help reverse the systemic decline in research outputs, focus and
capacity at publicly funded higher education institutions (HEIs),
Science Councils and other research institutions, -
To
strengthen and improve the capacity of HEIs, Science Councils, Musea
and other research institutions (e.g., University linked Teaching
Hospitals) to generate and apply new knowledge, -
To
stimulate strategic research across the knowledge spectrum and thereby
increase the level of excellence in research areas of national and
international importance, -
To
create research career pathways for highly skilled, high quality young
and mid-career researchers that effectively addresses historical racial,
gender and age imbalances, -
To improve and accelerate the training of highly qualified personnel through research. The
aim of the Initiative is to make South Africa competitive in the
international knowledge economy based on its existing and potential
strengths. The NRF will create 15 new Research Chairs in 2009 towards
the ultimate goal of 210 Chairs by 2010. |