Research support
A hub of information and support for current and future researchers and scholars.
Research support
A hub of information and support for current and future researchers and scholars.
Research Support
Wits University is a 100 + year-old research-intensive university that aspires to make a positive impact on society through:
- creating and advancing global knowledge; and
- fostering graduates to be leaders with integrity.
The current strategic plan for research (add link to attached PDF) strives to increase the production of ‘research with impact’. Impactful research is quality research that is defined to include:
- Discovery research that propels an academic discipline forward;
- Translational research that influences policy and practice;
- Innovative research that stimulates social impact and or economic development.
Achievement of this lofty goal will depend on growing new generations of research capability. In the South African context this research development imperative is closely linked to demographic transformation.
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Growing Future Scholars
Consequently, the University Research Office drives a number of initiatives that aim to grow future generations of scholars publishing research with impact. The programmes encourage development within the conceptual framework illustrated below.
Conceptual Framework for the development of research capacity
The support programmes that aim to achieve this development are built around the ‘4G’ Development Model (M Perutz, ‘Rita and the Four Gs’, Nature, 338,791 (1988)). As conceived in German, the four Gs include “Geschick, Geduld, Geld und Glück” which loosely translate into:
- Peripheral knowledge – the ‘art and craft’ of doing research;
- Patience – juggling the elements necessary for research into one place at one time;
- Money – funding an important driver of research;
- Luck – the skill to recognise and grasp opportunities.