This, the department says, increases the number of Research Chairs in South Africa to 154. The South African Research Chairs Initiative (SARChI) is government's flagship initiative, designed to attract and retain excellence in research and innovation in the South African science field.
SARChI's main goal is to strengthen the country's universities' ability to produce high quality postgraduate students and bolster research and innovation outputs. Since its inception in 2005, government has invested over R1.1 billion in SARChI, which is managed by the National Research Foundation (NRF). In awarding the 60 new Chairs, special consideration was given to the universities of technology, rural based institutions and those that have not participated in the programme.
Pandor said that the thematic areas in which the Chairs have been awarded are a direct response to the five priorities of government, namely the creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods, education, health, rural development, and the fight against crime and corruption. The GCIS reports that Chairs were awarded in primary, secondary and higher education issues as well as in the areas of Health, diagnostics and drug discovering, health policy, rural health development, food security and land reform, and Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Pandor said she was confident that the awards would improve South Africa's international research and innovation competitiveness while responding to the socio-economic challenges facing the country.
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