Collaborations through SARChI The School of Public Health (SOPH) continues to receive significant national research funding from the Department of Science and Innovation/National Research Foundation (NRF) and the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC). This funding has been principally in the form of funded research chairs (SARChI) and an Extra-Mural SAMRC Research Unit. The first SARChI Chair in Health Systems Complexity and Social Change was established in 2013 and is occupied by Prof Asha George. This was followed by the Extra-Mural SAMRC Research Unit (Health Services to Systems) in 2014 and a second SARChI Chair in Health Systems Governance held by Prof Helen Schneider. These sources of core funding have allowed us to develop lines of enquiry attuned to our perspectives as embedded researchers situated in the Global South; to invest heavily in capacity building (particularly through our doctoral programme); to advance our collaborative activities through established initiatives such as CHESAI (the Collaboration for Health Systems Analysis and Innovation); and to mobilise additional funding and partnerships.
Mutual strengthening The two SARChI chairs and the Extra-Mural Research Unit are fully integrated into the functioning of the SOPH in a mutually beneficial manner: the programmes leverage the considerable administrative and pedagogical infrastructure of the SOPH while the SARChI chairs help to support key strategic functions in the School. Asha leads the School’s research domain, providing cross-cutting support that enables the SOPH to maintain its high level of research productivity; and,
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The South African Research Chair Initiative (SARChI) was established by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) as a strategic intervention to increase scientific research capacity through the development of human resources and the generation of new knowledge, empowering top talent to develop particular fields. since 2017, Helen has convened, with Wolde Amde, a structured and increasingly successful doctoral programme (described elsewhere in this report). Given their core roles in the SOPH, we were delighted when both SARChIs and the Extra-Mural Research Unit were successfully reviewed and awarded new five-year cycles of funding during the reporting period. In addition, Helen’s SARChI was upgraded from a Tier 2 to a Tier 1 status. Both Asha and Helen have received NRF B-ratings, and in 2020 Asha featured in the list of ten researchers at UWC within the top 100,000 researchers globally, in terms of 2019 research citations. The themes of research and engagement Asha and Helen are pursuing in the next cycle advance a number of key areas that were consolidated or initiated during the 2019/20 biennium.
Collaborative governance One strand of our work addresses the inter-related ideas of governance, bottom-up health system strengthening and universal health coverage. Building on a previous evaluation (‘3-feet’) – which brought together ideas of local health system strengthening (centred on the district and the sub-district) with programmatic and health outcomes – we are
