INSIDE EDUCATION REPORTER
THE University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of Bristol (UoB) have launched two exciting initiatives – the UCT-UoB professorship programme and a fellowship programme for early career researchers.
UCT has a long and rich history of collaboration with various partners across the educational, societal and governmental spheres – nationally and internationally.
The launch of the two initiatives with UoB is part of a partnership that has grown into one of the most important and rewarding for each university.
Acting Vice-Chancellor Professor Sue Harrison said: “Our longstanding relationship with the University of Bristol has its genesis in our common membership of the Worldwide University Alliance, strengthened by our co-leadership of the World Universities Network (WUN) Global Africa Group.
This thriving bilateral relationship launched the Research Beyond Borders initiative in July 2019: a cohort of eight cotutelle PhD researchers working between the two universities in the fields of public health and poverty.”
Harrison said one of the elements that have underpinned the partnership is a common set of strategic values and a shared commitment to social justice. These are embedded in a new initiative announced this week following the UCT Vice-Chancellor’s Open Lecture by UoB VC Professor Evelyn Welch.
The first strand of this new initiative is the UCT–UoB Professorship Programme. Each university will award a professorship to three researchers for three years. These researchers will have the opportunity to spend up to six months a year at the partner university, working within one of three themes that the two universities have jointly identified.
The first of the three themes is “Hidden histories”. In this theme, UCT and the UoB will encourage selected researchers to explore the production of critical histories that make visible the often invisible and challenge the historical narratives of the powerful.
The second theme, “Climate change impacts and opportunities for health”, will offer selected researchers the opportunity to explore how climate change impacts health and to identify solutions that can reduce the impact of climate change on health and improve health outcomes, including at the city scale.
The third theme, “Environmental and social sustainability”, will encourage the exploration of a broad range of fields in which UCT and the UoB have complementary strengths, including (but not limited to) poverty and inequality, educational access, energy use and conservation, wastewater and water quality, as well as biodiversity and natural resources.
The second strand of the initiative is the UCT–UoB Fellowship Programme. Both universities believe in the importance of supporting their early career researchers to build their international experience and profile and take advantage of each institution’s possibilities.
Three early- to mid-career researchers from each institution will spend a maximum of three months a year, over two years, at the partner university. The fellows may focus on any research area, not restricted to the three themes specified as part of the professorship programme.
“These professors and fellows will be expected to co-publish and engage in joint activities such as lecturing. We also believe that, over time, this will lead to the co-supervision of postgraduate researchers and collaborative grant applications.
“We value this opportunity to collaborate with a Northern-based partner who is thoroughly committed to the importance of African-led research, both in Africa and globally. The opportunities embedded in this initiative will enrich the participants, strengthen the partnership between our two institutions, and enable the birth of exciting new research projects and the continuance and growth of existing ones,” concluded Harrison.
INSIDE EDUCATION
