Prof. Prof. Burtram Fielding

or the Faculty of Sciences, the Scholarship of Engagement (SoE) encompasses the need to drive academically relevant research, in line with the university’s mission, focussing on community and societal needs, resulting in mutually beneficial outcomes. The Faculty is continuously finding ways to integrate relevant community issues across teaching, research, and community engagement. Two of our best known examples of SoE are:

1. In the Department of Computer Sciences, a team, led by Prof. Bill Tucker and others, is working with rural communities on the Zenzeleni project, which has reimagined how telephone and internet services could be provided to rural communities by the inhabitants themselves. The project resulted in communities taking responsibility for their own telecommunications needs, at vastly reduced costs.

2. Prof. Jeremy Klaasen, from the Department of Medical Biosciences, working with South African first nations in a beneficiation sharing agreement, has developed the Indigenous Botanical Adjuvant Technology (iBATECH) project. Working with small-scale farmers, this biofertiliser has been observed to contain antimicrobial properties, which could improve the overall health, as well as the yield of food crops and plants.