Aims and Objectives

AIMS

The CoE’s aim is to:

• Promote knowledge and human capital development in areas of strategic importance to South Africa
• Promote collaborative research
• Promote and develop interdisciplinary research
• Systematically develop a creative research training environment that is internationally competitive
• Strive for the highest standards of quality, international competitiveness and esteem of their science, and
• Diffuse knowledge to where it is needed.

OBJECTIVES
The objectives of CoE-MaSS is to:

• Ensure the integration of several smaller and related research initiatives into large science programmes
• Reward, retain, sustain and improve scientific excellence
• Exploit the competitive advantage vested in outstanding researchers
• Promote knowledge and human capital in areas of national strategic importance (including indigenous knowledge)
• Promote collaborative research
• Promote and develop interdisciplinary research
• Systematically develop creative research training environments that are internationally competitive
• Raise the quality, international competitiveness, visibility and esteem of South African science e.g. by an increase in global share of research outputs
• Promote better diffusion and exploitation of the knowledge produced by tertiary institutions
• Achieve economies of scale through the optimisation of resources and effort through sharing personnel, equipment, data, ideas etc.
• Ensure secure and stable funding for research and dissemination
• Allow for planned, strategic, long-term research, and
• Reduce micro-management of resources by the funding agency.