South African Research Chairs Initiative

Background (source: NRF)

The main aim of the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) is to strengthen scientific research leadership and capacity in South African universities, thus creating a sustainable critical mass of world class academics and scholars that will train future generations of South African knowledge workers and support a South African knowledge-based economy. In pursuit and support of this goal, the programme is guided by the following five interrelated secondary 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:
• Help reverse the systemic decline in research outputs, focus and capacity at publicly funded HEIs, Science Councils and other research institutions,
• Strengthen and improve the capacity of HEIs, Science Councils, Musea and other research institutions 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; and
• To improve and accelerate the training of highly qualified personnel through research.