University of Cape Town (UCT)
The University of Cape Town provides an exciting research environment that combines excellence and impact, and it is one of the best places in the world to research Africa’s specific issues.
On a continent facing devastating pandemics, the Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine and the Drug Discovery and Development Centre at the University of Cape Town have produced innovative research, particularly in the fields of HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria, while the Wellcome Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Africa is the first of its kind on the continent.
The University of Cape Town also has interdisciplinary expertise in environmental conservation, climate change adaptation, and community conflict. The AXA Research Fund awarded the first research chair in Africa to the Director of the African Climate and Development Initiative, and the University of Cape Town hosts two centres of excellence under the African Research Universities Alliance: the African Centre of Excellence for Research on Inequalities and the Centre of Excellence in Climate and Development.
Additionally, the university is a growing hub for astronomical and astrophysical research in Africa, featuring global experts such as Professor George Ellis, co-author of “The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time” with Stephen Hawking, and Professor Russ Taylor, who leads the University of Cape Town’s involvement in the Square Kilometre Array project.
University of Johannesburg (UJ)
The University of Johannesburg (UJ) is a diverse educational institution with over 50,000 students, including more than 3,000 international students from 80 countries, making it one of the largest universities in South Africa among the 26 public universities that comprise the higher education system.
The vision of the University of Johannesburg is to be “an international university of choice, anchored in Africa, dynamically shaping the future.” Its mission can be described as: “Inspiring the community to transform and serve humanity through innovation and collaborative pursuit of knowledge.”
The University of Johannesburg offers globally recognized and internationally accredited academic programs based on curricula that incorporate modern developments in higher education for undergraduate and postgraduate students, aimed at equipping students for the job market and global citizenship. The University of Johannesburg houses many internationally recognized scholars and takes pride in the innovative research being conducted at the university.
University of Pretoria (UP)
The University of Pretoria is one of the top universities in Africa and the largest contact university in South Africa. We are a leading research university in Africa, internationally recognized for the quality and relevance of our education, for developing individuals, producing knowledge, and making a difference locally and globally. In its pursuit of excellence and recognition in its core functions of research, teaching, and learning, and integrating community engagement and communities into these functions, the University of Pretoria uses quality, relevance, diversity, and sustainability as indicators for direction.
The University of Pretoria is the only university in South Africa with a veterinary school, which ranks first in Africa. It also hosts the Centre of Excellence in African Research Universities for Sustainable Food Systems (ARUA-SFS) with the aim of creating a critical mass of talented researchers working together to maximize integration for transforming food systems in Africa.
The University of Pretoria recognizes the need to produce new knowledge through interdisciplinary approaches and innovative platforms to transform Africa and the world by addressing complex challenges.
The “Science for Transformation” platforms at the University of Pretoria include Future Africa, which is a center for interdisciplinary research networks and multispecialty collaboration within the University of Pretoria and the global research community; the Javett Art Centre, which serves as a catalyst for developing interdisciplinary research between the humanities and other faculties; Engineering 4.0, a facility for smart cities and transportation systems that connects the vast resources in technology and data science with other faculties across Future Africa; and Innovation Africa at the University of Pretoria, which is a research investment platform that hosts and develops government-industry-university research entities to address the national and African needs for sustainable development and economic growth.
University
Stellenbosch University
Over the past century, Stellenbosch University has grown into a premier educational institution in South Africa with a vision to be a leading research university on the African continent, recognized globally as an excellent, inclusive, and innovative institution, where knowledge is advanced for the service of society. The university’s values – excellence, compassion, justice, accountability, and respect – relate to the beliefs and attitudes that guide the institution’s behavior. All of these values are equally important, interconnected, and form the ethics of Stellenbosch University.
When it opened on April 2, 1918, Stellenbosch University comprised four faculties (Arts, Science, Education, and Agriculture), 503 students, and 40 professors. Today, the university (or Maties, as it is also known) consists of 10 faculties and five campuses with a vibrant and diverse community of over 32,000 undergraduate and postgraduate students, including more than 4,000 international students from 100 countries. We have approximately 3,300 full-time staff and over 300 postdoctoral fellows.
Stellenbosch University’s Vision 2040, along with the strategic framework 2019-2024, aims to enhance a thriving Stellenbosch University, provide a transformed student experience, foster purposeful partnerships and inclusive networks, enhance connected and collaborative teaching and learning, conduct research for impact, and position the university as an employer of choice.
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits University)
Wits University is a research university located in Johannesburg, South Africa. The university seeks to harness its research talent to provide leadership in the pursuit of truth and finding solutions to global challenges. We work tirelessly to link the global north with the global south and address global issues through our academic leadership.
We see no better way to do this than by supporting Nature Africa, a publication that highlights African research at a global level. Using international standards for scientific research, rigorously and independently peer-reviewed, is the cornerstone of Nature Africa.
Wits University aims to publish an increasing amount of “impactful research.” Our understanding of impact includes the dissemination of high-quality fundamental research that affects science, high-quality applied research that affects people, practice, and policy, and high-quality innovative research that drives economic growth and social entrepreneurship. The common thread is a focus on quality. The relationship between Wits University and Nature, as embodied in Nature Africa, is an ideal way to promote this high-quality research.
University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)
The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) is a leading educational institution in higher education on the African continent.
Located in the scenic province of KwaZulu-Natal, UKZN is a multi-campus, residential, educational, and research university. The university has a proud and rich heritage of academic excellence. In 2010, the province celebrated a century of higher education – a century of research, innovation, and community engagement. This vast wealth of knowledge production lies at the heart of the university’s success as one of the top institutions on the African continent.
UKZN is considered one of the best universities in South Africa and on the African continent overall, ranking among the top 500 universities in the world according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
In June 2020, the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR) placed UKZN in the top 2.4% of universities worldwide, ranking it 477th among 20,000 universities globally. This ranking is based on the assessment of key academic and institutional indicators, including the quality of education, alumni employment, research output, and citations.
Subsequently, UKZN was ranked 71st globally in the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2020 – an advancement of 15 places since 2019. UKZN is the only African university listed in the top 100 in these rankings. These rankings evaluate universities engaged in research across their core missions: teaching, research, knowledge transfer, and international orientation.
Institution
Bayer
How can we ensure that everyone in the world has sufficient access to food and medicine, amidst the challenge of rapidly growing populations and their aging around the globe?
At Bayer Foundation, we believe that science is the foundation through which we can address the challenges facing humanity. We focus our efforts at the intersection of health, nutrition, and the environment, where we enhance the impact of science as a basis for social progress, and then translate this into tangible impacts on people’s lives through our social innovation programs.
We believe that in order to achieve global equality, we must empower people around the world to address the challenges they face in their daily lives using local knowledge, while providing support from the global community. We are working towards our ambitions in Sub-Saharan Africa, supporting outstanding scientists from the region to tackle challenges ranging from pandemics to biodiversity conservation. In addition, our social innovation portfolio is cultivating rural areas by helping social entrepreneurs scale their innovations to address critical issues such as access to healthcare and climate-smart agriculture, and we are taking positive steps towards a world that achieves health for all and is free from hunger.
For more information about our scientific and social innovation portfolio, please visit our website at the following link: https://www.bayer-foundation.com/
Contact: bayer.foundations@bayer.com
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