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

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In addition, two public workshops and four public lectures on
sustainability issues were delivered. Formal partnerships in the form
of jointly funded projects and MoUs were formed with the Centre for
Complexity at Stellenbosch University, South African National Parks
and the Institute for Water Research and the Environmental Education
and Sustainability Unit at Rhodes University. Informal research
partnerships were forged with Stockholm University, CSIR, CSIRO in
Australia, Eden District Municipality, Department of Environmental
Affairs and the South African National Biodiversity Institute, while
informal engagement partnerships were formed with emerging and
commercial farmers, the South Cape business sector, Eden District
Municipality, George Municipality, Department of Agriculture Forestry
and Fisheries and Western Cape Agriculture. The SRU is going from
strength to strength and has entered a phase of rapid growth.
Leader: Prof HJ de Jager
NMMU Research and Innovation Report 2011 - Research Entities
Research and Outreach Unit for
Technology Education
The mission of the Research and Outreach Unit for Technology
Education (RoUTE) is to actively engage and promote scholarship
in teaching and learning in order to advance technology education
within the internal and external community, both nationally
and internationally. Some exciting projects during 2011 included
the HEDS-TL Pilot Project to address the language and reading
and writing skills of students. Another project was the Mentorship
Programme in the School of Engineering, where retired engineers
were used as specialist mentors to mentor senior students and firstyear
students. The preliminary results obtained from this project
are very promising. Blended Learning and Curriculum Design were
two other major projects that ran during 2011. The outputs from
the Unit increased to five articles and eight conference papers. Five
new projects were identified for 2012, which will bring the total
number of active research projects to nine. The Unit will continue to
align its goals with Vision 2020 during the year 2012 in its pursuit
to promote and enhance the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Research Capacity
Development
NMMU continues to make substantial investments in initiatives aimed
at realising Vision 2020, and its strategic vision to increase the research
capacity of emerging researchers.
These initiatives have included the following:
Next Generation Academic
Development Programmes
Two focused interventions were piloted during 2011 in an effort to
address the need in higher education institutions to transform the
academic workforce in order to meet the competencies required in
academia in the 21st century.
The first programme, the Early Career Development Programme
(ECDP), was piloted with 14 participants with representatives from
each of the faculties. The ECDP aims to fast track the development
of these academics in the areas of teaching and learning, research,
and academic management.
The second programme, the NMMU’s Next Generation Initiative
aims to make a significant contribution towards growing a cohort of
potential staff as part of the next generation of academics. The first
four successful applicants were appointed as Associate Lecturers
for a period of three years. These incumbents are from scares skills
academic programmes and form part of the University’s succession
planning in the identified disciplines.
During 2011, a number of capacity development interventions were
offered to support staff and postgraduate students as follows:
• Research Capacity Development workshops, which included
aspects of research project management, research career
development, research supervision, and research methodology.
• Writing retreats aimed at increasing the research outputs,
especially among emerging researchers (staff and post-
graduate students).
Postdoctoral Fellowships
Nineteen Postdoctoral Fellowships were hosted by NMMU in
2011. Fellowships were funded by the NMMU Council, internal
departments or units, and 12 fellowships were funded or co-funded
by external funders including the NRF, Claude Leon Foundation and
the MRC. NMMU’s contribution in respect of fellowships totalled
R1 273 853.