Soil Science
Joint contracts were funded by the Water Research Commission and involved formal collaboration with the University of the Western Cape (Earth Sciences Department), the CSIR (Groundwater Group) and the ARC (Institute for Soil, Climate and Water). The BIOTA Southern Africa project, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, involves the University of Cape Town and the University of Hamburg (Germany) as partners. Other partners in ecological research are the University of the Witwatersrand and the National Botanical Institute. A new contract was entered into with ESKOM to conduct research on the use of coal ash as a liming material for acid soils in the Highveld. A number of projects are being done in collaboration with ARC Nietvoorbij-Infruitec. A new collaborative agreement was reached involving exchange of researchers between the Department and the hydrological research group led by Prof Wolfgang Flügel at the University of Jena in Germany. Financial support from both the German government and the South African NRF has been provided for the exchange.

Soil Science sponsors
BIOTA Southern Africa longitudinal transect research project, funded by the German Ministry of Training and Research and the SA Department of Science and Technology; Eskom; Lombardi Trust; Winetech