2011-NMMU-Research-Report - Research Management - Nelson ...

Department of Research Capacity Development
Dr Blanche Pretorius,
Director: Department
of Research Capacity
Development
The three core functions of the Department of Research Capacity Development are: to provide financial
assistance to postgraduate candidates and postdoctoral fellows, ensuring ongoing development of emerging
researchers, and to provide oversight for the institutional research ethics committees.
NMMU continues to make significant progress in its drive to create an enabling environment to support and
encourage its emerging researchers. For students this has meant a focus on increasing access to funding for
postgraduate studies and also opportunities for enhancing research and publication skills. The concerted
efforts towards a culture of research publication have contributed to a significant increase in the number of
publications by postgraduate students and postdoctoral fellows.
A positive trend is evident in the percentage of staff holding doctoral qualifications, which
now stands at just under 40%.
Staff have been encouraged to further their qualifications and to improve their research profiles and productivity.
A positive trend is evident in the percentage of staff holding doctoral qualifications, which now stands at
just under 40%. This remains a central goal to improve the staff qualification profile in order to respond
meaningfully to the targets set in the University’s 2020 Vision Statement.
In 2011, the University saw the initiation of the NMMU’s Early Career Development Programme and the
Next Generation Initiative as two focused interventions to support the career development of early career
academics and to grow our own timber in specific scarce skills disciplines.
The Department of Research Capacity Development recognises that higher education institutions are
increasingly challenged to recruit and retain adequate numbers of academics and researchers to constitute
the next generation of academics. Hence the NMMU’s strategy takes a two-pronged approach focusing
on staff currently in the academy and augments this approach with a focus on postgraduate students on a
trajectory towards a career in academia.
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