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You are here: Home eNewsletter Archives 2007 April 2007 Johan's monthly comment: SAEON grows capacity and gears up to establish final two nodes

Johan's monthly comment: SAEON grows capacity and gears up to establish final two nodes

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"SAEON scientists are in discussion with a wide range of peers and stakeholders to fast track the delivery of products based on existing environmental observation data." - Johan Pauw, Head of SAEON (Picture © SAEON)

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A SAEON task team has recommended the establishment of a node for Grasslands, Forests and Wetlands in Pietermaritzburg hosted by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and in collaboration with the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Picture © Mitzi du Plessis)


- By Johan Pauw, Head of SAEON


SAEON's in-house scientific capacity is growing steadily and will soon include five PhDs. This has been complemented by the appointment of two data managers. Equally significant is that by May the education outreach staff should be three in number.

These developments are significant for SAEON's ability to deliver on its core objectives of observation, information and education, and more generally to play a critical national role in building the SAEON network.


SAEON to fast track product delivery

At a planning meeting in mid-March, the leadership of SAEON spent two full days vigorously contemplating a range of issues such as business plans for SAEON in general and the existing nodes specifically, an overarching science plan for SAEON, bringing more science into the education outreach programme, data ethics, data agreements and project registration, international collaboration and the next SAEON Summit.

SAEON scientists are in discussion with a wide range of peers and stakeholders to fast track the delivery of products based on existing data. These were reviewed during the planning meeting. Readers will be kept informed of progress made with the various projects through this newsletter.


Node for Grasslands, Forests and Wetlands

Following consultation with the Grassland Society, a SAEON task team has recommended the establishment of a node for Grasslands, Forests and Wetlands in Pietermaritzburg to be hosted by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and to be developed in close collaboration with the University of KwaZulu-Natal. The task team's recommendation must still be reviewed by SAEON's Technical Steering Committee and Advisory Board before work can start on the organisation of the Node.

Node for Arid Lands

In April, another SAEON task team will visit four potential organisations willing to host the node for Arid Lands after earlier consultation with the Arid Zone Ecology Forum was indecisive. A comprehensive report prepared by the North-West University will serve to inform the task team.

SAEON Summit papers

Authors of the twenty-odd SAEON Summit papers that were submitted to SAEON for review can rest assured that their papers have been placed in the good hands of Prof Mike Berger, associate editor of the SA Journal of Science. Mike will work with the authors to produce papers consistent with the quality of this definitive international publication.

The process to appoint new members on the SAEON Technical Steering Committee and Advisory Board is ongoing and the first meetings of the year will take place during May-June in time to consider the recommendations of the above-mentioned task teams on the establishment of the final two SAEON nodes.


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