Last month Minister Hanekom approved an additional five new CoEs to promote collaborative and interdisciplinary research among research-performing institutions, and to provide high-end skills development in priority research areas.
The new CoEs bring to 14 the total number of centres established since 2004 by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation (NRF).
The CoEs take the lead in researching various areas of national interest and are designed to accelerate the delivery of appropriate human resources and knowledge capacity, as well as to enhance the international competitiveness of South African research in pursuit of research excellence and capacity development.
The DST/NRF CoE in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences brings to four the number of CoEs hosted by Wits. The other three are the CoE in Strong Materials, the CoE in Palaeosciences, and the CoE in Biomedical Tuberculosis Research, co-hosted with the University of Stellenbosch and the University of Cape Town.
The CoE in Mathematical and Statistical Sciences will focus on two themes reflecting the pure and applied nature of the mathematical sciences. These themes are "Mathematics paradigms for the Earth and the environment"; and "Mathematical, statistical and computational modelling of the Earth and the environment".
According to the report: Review of Mathematical Sciences Research at South African Higher Education Institutions (International Review Panel Report: 2008), research in the mathematical sciences in South Africa suffers from isolation at many levels. The International Review Panel Report asserts that the inward, institution-oriented approach to research in the mathematical sciences needs to be transformed into a national approach.
South Africa's CoEs are training the next generation of South Africans in the skills and knowledge that will make South Africa a leading knowledge-based economy. This intervention also supports the National Development Plan, which calls for an ambitious expansion of the South African science and technology system.
