Pretoria – Female research chairs have been appointed at various higher education institutions to assist South Africa's transformation into a knowledge economy, boosting its international competitiveness and improving people's quality of life.
The 42 new research chairs, awarded to local women researchers, has increased the total number of chairs under the South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) to 197.
Making the announcement on Wednesday, Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor said so far SARChI had involved mostly men, with four out of five research chairs going to male professors.
"Today, that changes. Today, we make history. Today, we have 42 new female research professors. From now, nearly half of our 201 research professors are women”.
Minister Pandor said the additional women research chairs were not "quota appointments", but impressive candidates of a high calibre.
Established in 2006 by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and managed by the National Research Foundation (NRF), SARChI is a government human capital development intervention to strengthen and improve the scientific research and innovation capacity of South African public universities.
The new research chairs are in the following fields: Biomedical Engineering and Innovation, Laser Applications in Health, Integrated Studies of Learning Language, Mathematics and Science in the Primary School, Gender Politics and Paediatric Tuberculosis. – SAnews.gov.za
