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SAEON and Univen sign partnership agreement
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- Dr Amani Saidi, Stakeholder Relations Manager, SAEON
The University of Venda (Univen), situated in Thohoyandou in the scenic Vhembe district of the Limpopo Province of South Africa, is the latest in a growing list of universities in the country that have entered into formal partnership agreement with SAEON.
Univen was established in 1982 to serve the population of the then homeland of Venda. Post 1994 Univen has transformed into a national institution that provides tertiary education for rural and regional development in southern Africa.
Situated in a region that has been proclaimed as a biosphere reserve by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Culture Organisation (UNESCO), and boasting the Faculties of Natural Sciences, Environmental Sciences, and Agriculture and Natural Resources, Univen has always been an attractive potential partner to SAEON.
SAEON Managing Director Johan Pauw visited the institution in 2004 and kick-started the process of contact and dialogue with researchers and postgraduate students. Following the presentation Pauw made during the 2004 visit, a number of honours and masters students signed up for the SAEON-affiliated Graduate Students’ Network (GSN). The GSN currently has a sizeable contingent of active members from Univen.
The appointment of Prof Jan Crafford as Dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences in 2008 breathed more life into the SAEON-Univen interactions. A couple of faculty members started to link up with the SAEON Ndlovu Node for some collaborative project work. The presence in the SAEON National Office of Dr Amani Saidi, himself a former academic staff member of Univen, provided a further reason for pursuing the establishment of a formal partnership between SAEON and Univen.
All the efforts came to fruition on 25 September 2009 when Prof Peter Mbati, Vice Chancellor and Principal of Univen and Johan Pauw, Managing Director of SAEON signed a formal partnership agreement. Under the agreement, SAEON and Univen undertake to collaborate in research projects of mutual interest to the two institutions, and to share data acquired through the collaborative projects.
Capacity building
Part of the mandate of the National Facilities of the National Research Foundation (NRF) is to provide opportunities for human development, with special efforts to involve researchers from formerly disadvantaged tertiary institutions. As an emerging National Facility, SAEON will, through the partnership agreement, provide Univen researchers and postgraduate students access to field research sites at SAEON’s Ndlovu and other nodes, as well as field study/survey equipment and unlimited sets of data through the SAEON data portal. SAEON will provide different forms of support to Univen researchers and students working at SAEON sites or involved in collaborative projects with SAEON.
Some NRF grant programmes such as the Strategic Platforms Programmes require that proposals from researchers be endorsed by a National Facility. SAEON, through this agreement, will endorse such proposals from Univen after due processes. SAEON scientists will also be available to help with the supervision of postgraduate project work and dissertations.
Prof Crafford is determined to make this agreement work. Since the signing of the agreement, he has visited the SAEON National Office to share his ideas on potential collaborative projects and other joint initiatives. A follow-up meeting that will also involve the Ndlovu Node Manager is expected to take place in the near future.
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