Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½

First Africa Data Science Conference held at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½

1 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University

The future of AI and data science on the continent must address local context, constraints, opportunities, and aspirations.

Africa’s first data science conference brought together academics, postgraduate students, early-career researchers, industry practitioners, policymakers, innovators, professional bodies, public-sector stakeholders, technology partners, and the wider data science community at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University,

Themed African Data Science, for Africa, the Conference (ADSC 2026) aimed to advance research, strengthen postgraduate development, deepen industry engagement and promote responsible, context-aware data science and artificial intelligence. ADSC 2026 focused on the role of data science in addressing Africa’s social, economic, institutional, technological, and developmental questions.

“There is a hunger for data science solutions for African challenges. This Conference is grounded in the belief that Africa’s data science future must be shaped by African realities, African talent, African institutions, and African priorities,” says Dr Farai Mlambo, Conference Chair. He added that one of the Conference highlights was the ‘Employability’ session, which drew more than 400 undergraduate and graduate participants to engage with industry representatives on opportunities for qualified data scientists.

The Conference is a continental platform for scholarly exchange, practical engagement, interdisciplinary collaboration, and long-term capacity-building in data science, artificial intelligence, statistics, analytics, and digital transformation.

Professor Lynn Morris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research & Innovation, says ADSC 2026 is a vibrant, relevant, and very timely conference.

“The level of participation reflects a clear appetite for a serious African platform devoted to the future of data science, and it really signals something important, that data science and artificial intelligence are no longer peripheral or specialist concerns; they are now central to how universities conduct their research, how industries and universities innovate, how governments make decisions, how societies respond to conflict challenges, and how young people imagine their futures,” she said.

She added that data science is truly transdisciplinary and helps people to understand each other and to solve problems. “In Africa, we have many complex problems to solve, like disease surveillance, public health systems, climate resilience, food security, inclusive growth, digital infrastructure, financial access, governance, education, urbanisation, energy transitions, youth unemployment, and responsible technological transformation, and these are all things that Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University is engaged in. These are not problems that can be solved by a single discipline.”

Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University’s Vice-Chancellor and Principal, said the Conference recognises the importance of academic partnerships to leverage global resources.

“It is quite inspiring to see the next generation of core leaders in data science and their commitment to driving data science research and collaboration,” he said.

Dr Taariq Surtee, Organising Committee Chair, said the Conference has been carefully designed not only as a scholarly gathering but as a full delegate experience that supports learning, collaboration, networking, professional development, and institutional partnership.

The programme combined scientific research presentations, keynote addresses, expert panel discussions, practical half-day workshops, poster engagement, technology exhibitions, employability-focused dialogue, and structured networking opportunities. It was designed to create meaningful interaction between theory and practice, enabling researchers, practitioners, institutions, and decision-makers to exchange knowledge, identify shared challenges, and explore collaborative solutions.

“Data science is an equalising playing field where Africa can compete with the rest of the world. What is unique about this Conference is we built in a strong industry component that can teach the next generation how to be a good data scientist,” he added.

Prize Giving

The Prize Giving event also recognised the excellence across selected conference categories, including outstanding posters, oral presentations, postgraduate contributions, and other notable achievements identified through the ADSC 2026 programme.

Winners:

Best Overall Oral Presentation
Winners: Marike Kluyts, Caryn McNamara, Tanya Coetzee and Eleni Flack-Davison
Presented by: Marike Kluyts and Caryn McNamara
Paper title: Contextual mapping of the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ AI policy development and training environment: Challenges and opportunities

Best Postgraduate Oral Presentation
Winners: Lehlohonolo Moloi and Edward Nkadimeng
Presented by: Lehlohonolo Moloi
Paper title: Testing the Necessity of Rationality in Macroeconomic Dynamics through a Monte Carlo Comparison of Real Business Cycle Models and the Bak–Chen–Scheinkman–Woodford Self-Organized Criticality Framework

Best Poster Presentation
Winners: Jose Francisco de Oliveira, Jean-Pierre Caliste and Imaculada Quinda
Presented by: Jose Francisco de Oliveira
Poster title: A Virtual Museum Prototype for Archaeological Heritage in Benguela Province

Did gum disease make us human?

1 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University

New study flips the script on evolution.

Human evolution is generally explained through changes in brain size, locomotion, or tool use, but new research from Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University suggests that gum disease and changes in facial structure may have been important factors in shaping the evolutionary path that ultimately led to modern humanity.

"Periodontal diseases are among the oldest recognised diseases in human evolution," says Professor Ugo Ripamonti from the Department of Internal Medicine, School of Clinical Medicine and lead author of the study .

"The fossil record allows us to investigate not only when these diseases emerged, but also how they may have influenced the evolutionary trajectory of our species."

Researchers Ripamonti, Dr Laura Roden (Coventry University, UK) and Jakobus Hoffman (South African Nuclear Energy Corporation) examined 71 fossil jaws dating back between 5.3 and 2.6 million years from collections housed at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ and the Ditsong Museum of Natural History.

The team found that species in the genus Homo experienced significantly greater alveolar bone loss due to periodontal disease than their Australopithecine relatives.

Alveolar bone supports and anchors the teeth in the jaws, and its loss and deterioration is a sign of periodontal disease.

"We found that the homo species developed significant alveolar bone loss, with distinctive crater-like lesions and defects around the teeth that were largely absent in Australopithecines," says Ripamonti.

The findings point to a possible link between alveolar bone loss in the Homo genus and the evolutionary changes that gave rise to modern humans.

"We typically view disease as purely destructive," says Ripamonti. "But in this case, periodontal disease may have interacted with other biological changes in ways that contributed to the emergence of human form."

However, to understand the leap from diseased gums to human intelligence, we must consider the skulls of our pre-human ancestors. Simply put, these were dense with large, powerful jaws, thick facial muscles, and large teeth to crush and masticate though food like edible roots.

While this anatomy allowed them to chew through tough vegetation, it also created a tight structure around the brain's cavity, effectively locking it in place and limiting its growth.

The researchers propose that chronic gum disease with important alveolar bone loss created a domino effect that shattered this anatomical cage.

There was a mutation that resulted in smaller tooth crowns. These smaller crowns could still cope with chewing, but they also contributed to a reduction in the facial muscles used for mastication. As chewing demands became lower, the large facial muscles began to shrink. These genetic changes led to progressively smaller tooth crowns, which generated weaker chewing forces while still allowing effective chewing and survival. Reduced chewing ability may, in turn, have contributed to a reduction in prognathism — the forward projection of the jaw and face seen in many earlier hominins.

Over millions of years, a less protruding face may have created space for expansion of the cranial vault, paving the way for the rapid brain growth that defines modern humanity.

Importantly, the study challenges the traditional “survival of the fittest” narrative by showing how a common illness can interact with genetics to steer the physical shape of a species.

It bridges the gap between dentistry, bone biology, and anthropology, perhaps answering the question as to why our jaws shrank before our brains grew.

Listening before the next death

2 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University

How VAPAR turned verbal autopsy, community intelligence, and action learning into a model for rural health systems.

“Alcohol is destroying our communities and families. If we continue like this, our children will not have a better future.”

This was the diagnosis of a community in rural Mpumalanga, where for 10 years residents participated in identifying health problems to inform the development of better, more appropriate health care services.

An of the Verbal Autopsy with Participatory Action Research (VAPAR) initiative, launched in 2015 by the SAMRC/Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), the Mpumalanga Department of Health, and the University of Aberdeen, found that better health data to strengthen health systems is not only produced through routine statistics or medical cause-of-death information.

“We found that local knowledge, frontline experience, verbal autopsy, participatory action research and structured learning between communities and health system actors allow health systems to learn from deaths that routine data often misses,” says Dr Lucia D’Ambruoso, VAPAR’s Principal Investigator.

What communities can show that statistics cannot

In the case of alcohol and drug abuse, residents described it as a self-sustaining social crisis linked to poverty, debt, violence and wider community hardship, with destructive effects on families and a disproportionate impact on children and young people.

Researchers placed this community knowledge alongside verbal autopsy data, which suggested that alcohol and other drug abuse contributed, at least in part, to around 30% of deaths in the local setting.

“I think VAPAR has helped shift what health data actually consists of. Yes, there are registers and datasets, but we also want to know how people experience risk, why people avoid clinics, why treatment is interrupted, why violence is hidden, why transport fails, why stigma matters, and why services may not be trusted,” says Professor , who is chief scientist at Agincourt.

New biosocial understandings of deaths

Verbal autopsy is a method in which, through structured interviews with relatives or caregivers, researchers gather information about signs, symptoms, and events leading up to death and use this information to identify a probable medical cause of death.

But VAPAR took verbal autopsy further.

One important part of this was COMCAT, the Circumstances of Mortality Categories tool, which extended the categories used to classify deaths. Instead of classifying deaths solely by medical causes, the team introduced social codes within medical classifications. This allowed researchers to produce new biosocial understandings of deaths within the surveillance population.

This method was later taken up by the South African Medical Research Council in a national cause-of-death study and has been used in a range of low- and middle-income settings, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Indonesia, as well as in Saudi Arabia, to explore deaths and conditions beyond the maternal and child health deaths that this type of analysis has often focused on.

The second part of VAPAR is participatory action research.

“Communities are not treated only as sources of information. They are recognised as people with knowledge, experience and the capacity to analyse problems, identify priorities and act on them,” explains D’Ambruoso.

Together, extended verbal autopsy, COMCAT, and participatory action research provided the team with strong evidence to bring to a learning platform with the district. Strong, in this case, means evidence that was locally relevant, relatable and actionable.

In earlier VAPAR-linked work in the Agincourt health and demographic surveillance site, community groups explored local knowledge on HIV/AIDS and violent assault. Their discussions showed how mortality was shaped by more than disease or injury.

Participants described how poverty, debt, stigma, gendered power, traditional beliefs, alcohol and substance use, high transport costs, poor confidentiality and weak emergency response could all influence whether people protected themselves, disclosed illness or violence, sought care, stayed in treatment or reached help in time.

Evidence that does not sit on a shelf

Integral to VAPAR’s design was the idea that evidence should lead to action.

The aim was not to produce another dataset that sits on a shelf or in an online repository, written up in the international literature but disconnected from the place where the data were collected and organised.

Instead, VAPAR set out to connect verbal autopsy, community intelligence and routine health information to the health system.

“What astounded me was how little time it took for unconnected actors to find a common cause. The process showed the promise and difficulty of multisectoral action,” says D’Ambruoso.

The team quickly realised that appreciative action learning was needed to document the implementation challenges and feed them into the next action plans. Over repeated action-learning cycles, action plans learn from themselves, becoming more focused, informed and achievable.

Creating psychologically safe spaces to piece together evidence

The key was to create repeated, psychologically safe spaces where people could deliberate over problems, develop joint action plans and return to ask what had happened.

Over that time, VAPAR evolved from a research process linking verbal autopsy and participatory action research into a health policy and systems research learning platform embedded in primary healthcare governance.

“Across the decade, four mechanisms – role clarity, trust-building and recognition, collective sense-making, and strengthened agency – were identified. Our platform was one where all actors met regularly to interpret evidence, understand each other’s constraints and develop practical responses,” explains D’Ambruoso.

The work is now moving into its next phase. The team is planning with the district to adapt the VAPAR learning platform to support the delivery of care for women in health centres, continuing the central lesson of the project: that better health systems begin by listening before the next death.

Fak'ugesi 2026: African Imaginaries. The signal is live

3 July 2026 - Fak'ugesi African Digital & Innovation Festival

The 13th Fak'ugesi African Digital & Innovation Festival announces its 2026 theme, dates and curatorial framework.

The today announced African Imaginaries as the curatorial theme for its 13th edition, taking place from 13 to 17 October 2026 across Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University's Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, Origins Centre and the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Anglo American Digital Dome in Johannesburg.

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Founded in 2014, the Fak'ugesi African Digital & Innovation Festival brings together artists, designers, technologists, researchers, entrepreneurs and cultural practitioners exploring the future of African digital creativity. In 2025, award applications arrived from 26 African countries, festival attendance doubled, and 7.2 million people were reached through earned media.

The curatorial framework One Signal. Three Frequencies. organises the programme through three curatorial frequencies: Memory Engines, Imagination Engines and Future Engines. Together they carry a single signal, bringing artists, technologists, designers, researchers, entrepreneurs, policymakers and cultural practitioners into conversation around how African knowledge is preserved, generated and applied.

Says Festival Director, Alby Michaels: “African Imaginaries is both a declaration and an invitation. It recognises what has always been true: Africa has always imagined beyond its circumstances and created beyond its constraints. Fak’ugesi is the place where those imaginations synchronise, collide and transform into new possibilities for the continent and the world.”

Built around the proposition ‘Imagination Precedes Innovation’, Fak'ugesi 2026 places imagination at the centre of technological and cultural production. Every platform, system and technology begins as an act of imagination. This year's festival asks what becomes possible when African practitioners shape those conditions for themselves.

Across five days, African Imaginaries becomes a live encounter between artists, technologists, designers, researchers and audiences already shaping the continent's digital future through exhibitions, talks, performances, immersive experiences, workshops, awards, game showcases and industry programmes.

Fak’ugesi also launches a new website at fakugesi.co.za today. Designed as an extension of the Festival itself, it brings together the 2026 theme, programme, opportunities and stories in a contemporary digital experience that is as much about exploration as information. As the programme unfolds, the site will become the central platform for announcements, registrations and participation.

Visit fakugesi.co.za to register, explore the programme and follow announcements as Fak'ugesi 2026 unfolds.

Event details

• Dates  13 to 17 October 2026
• Venue  Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, Braamfontein, Johannesburg
• Registration  fakugesi.co.za

Kidney disease cohort chosen for SA’s landmark genomics programme

7 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University

National SA110k Human Genome Programme will build broad genetic evidence on the causes of disease.

GENARK-SA, a Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University-led study investigating the genetic basis of chronic disease in diverse African populations, has been chosen as part of a landmark national programme, the SA110k Human Genome Programme.

SA110k will build broad genetic evidence on the causes of disease and lay the foundation for a South African clinical genomics ecosystem.

The pilot SA110k project is led by the South African Medical Research Council in collaboration with the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Many questions around chronic kidney disease on the continent remain unanswered, despite its growing burden. Researchers at GENARK-SA aim to answer some of them, such as how common it is, its causes, and the tools used to diagnose and predict it more accurately for African patients.

For Dr June Fabian, co-director of the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Donald Gordon Medical Institute (Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ DGMI) in which GENARK-SA is nested, the inclusion of the study in the SA110k programme will allow researchers an opportunity to address longstanding gaps in kidney disease research.

Tools designed for African populations

“Many of the tools used to measure and predict kidney disease have been developed using data from populations outside Africa, and as a result, genetic variants linked to disease in European populations do not always translate to African populations, limiting the accuracy of existing diagnostic and risk prediction tools,” she says.

In people of European descent, diabetes is often noted as the leading driver of kidney disease. Moreover, kidney function is commonly estimated using biomarkers such as creatinine and cystatin C.

However, these biomarkers can be influenced by factors including age, sex, nutrition and body composition.

If the equations used to estimate kidney function are not appropriate for the population being assessed, disease may be underdiagnosed or incorrectly classified.

GENARK-SA builds on years of work through the African Research on Kidney Disease (ARK) Consortium and the SAMRC/Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Unit (Agincourt) in rural Mpumalanga. The Agincourt research platform follows approximately 120,000 people across 31 villages, generating one of the most comprehensive long-term population health datasets in Africa.

About the GENARK-SA study

GENARK-SA has assembled one of the most comprehensive kidney disease cohorts in the region. The first phase enrolled more than 2,000 adults aged 20 to 80 years and collected DNA samples alongside detailed clinical, laboratory and demographic information.

Participants were screened for conditions including hypertension, diabetes, HIV, tuberculosis and known kidney disease, while information on medication use, traditional medicine, tobacco exposure and other health indicators was also collected.

A second phase involved intensive clinical assessment of approximately 950 participants. Researchers measured kidney function using gold-standard methods and collected extensive data on body composition, cardiovascular health, frailty, imaging, metabolomics, proteomics and whole-genome sequencing.

The result is a uniquely rich dataset that allows researchers to explore fundamental questions about kidney disease in African populations. These include understanding why kidney biomarkers behave differently across populations, identifying genetic variants associated with disease risk, and investigating biological pathways that link kidney disease with conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and HIV-associated kidney disease.

“As SA110K begins building a national genomics resource, the inclusion of GENARK-SA ensures that kidney disease is part of that story. More importantly, it represents a step towards a future where African patients are no longer underrepresented in the science that shapes healthcare,” says Fabian.

A uniquely robust cohort for precision medicine

The national SA110k Human Genome Programme brings together expertise from the Donald Gordon Medical Institute, SAMRC/Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Unit (Agincourt), the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience (SBIMB), genomics and bioinformatics researchers, laboratory teams, community partners and international collaborators.

Faian says, “The inclusion of GENARK-SA in SA110K means that kidney disease is being brought into the centre of South Africa’s precision medicine agenda. It also shows what becomes possible when specialist clinical research, rural population health data, genomic science and national infrastructure begin to work together."

How Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Donald Gordon Medical Centre is advancing specialised reconstructive surgery in SA

7 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University

A 12-year-old with a rare neurological condition that affects facial movement and expression smiles after specialist surgery.

When 12-year-old Eugene underwent a highly specialised facial reanimation procedure earlier this year, the surgery represented something profoundly human, the possibility of smiling for the first time.

Born with Moebius syndrome, a rare neurological condition that affects facial movement and expression, Eugene had spent his life unable to smile, blink properly or express emotion through facial movement. And while his story is emotionally powerful, it also shines a light on a far broader healthcare reality, the growing importance of highly specialised reconstructive surgery in restoring not only appearance but movement, function, dignity and quality of life.

At Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Donald Gordon Medical Centre (WDGMC), reconstructive microsurgery is helping redefine what is possible for patients facing some of the most complex medical challenges, from congenital conditions and cancer to severe trauma and tissue loss.

Often misunderstood as a field focused primarily on cosmetic procedures, reconstructive microsurgery sits at the intersection of surgical precision, innovation and long-term patient rehabilitation. These procedures frequently involve transplanting tissue, muscle and nerves from one part of the body to another and reconnecting blood vessels, often measuring less than two millimetres in diameter, under microscopic magnification.

Leading this work at WDGMC is Dr Dimitri Liakos, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon with fellowship training in reconstructive microsurgery and super microsurgery.

“These procedures are not simply about appearance,” says Dr Liakos. “They are about restoring function, movement and ultimately helping patients regain parts of their lives that were lost or that they were born without.”

In Eugene’s case, surgeons transferred functioning muscle together with its blood and nerve supply into the face, reconnecting these delicate structures under a microscope so movement could gradually return over time.

Eugene’s procedure was facilitated through the support of the Smile Foundation, which works to improve access to reconstructive surgery for children requiring specialised care.

“We are deeply grateful to Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Donald Gordon Medical Centre and Dr Dimitri Liakos for their dedication in supporting Eugene on his journey,” says Tarri Parfitt, CEO of Smile Foundation. “It is truly remarkable to open a world-class facility to this family and provide care at the highest level of expertise. Facial reanimation surgery is profoundly life-changing. For Eugene, it represents the possibility of expression, connection and a future he may never have imagined before. For Smile, it was also an invaluable opportunity for other surgeons to learn from such a rare and complex case, turning one surgery into the potential to help many more children like Eugene. We highly value the opportunity to work alongside Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Donald Gordon Medical Centre on cases such as this and look forward to helping many more children together.”

While these procedures are performed in highly specialised centres globally, access to this level of care remains limited in South Africa due to the advanced infrastructure, multidisciplinary expertise and years of specialised training required to perform them successfully.

For WDGMC, however, the ability to perform these surgeries forms part of a broader commitment to advancing highly specialised care within South Africa’s healthcare system while simultaneously strengthening academic medicine and specialist training.

As an academic hospital affiliated with the University of the Witwatersrand, WDGMC has become an important training environment for complex reconstructive microsurgery in South Africa. The hospital recently established the country’s first reconstructive microsurgery fellowship programme for qualified plastic surgeons, helping expand the number of specialists capable of performing these highly technical procedures.

“We have a responsibility not only to perform these surgeries, but to transfer the skill,” says Dr Liakos. “If we do not train future microsurgeons, access to this level of specialised care will remain limited.”

According to Dr Liakos, successful reconstructive microsurgery depends not only on surgical expertise but on building the right multidisciplinary environment around patients.

“To do these cases successfully, you need a dedicated team and an environment that functions seamlessly,” he explains. “Microsurgery is never a one-person effort. It is the nursing staff, anaesthetists, theatre teams and systems around you that make these outcomes possible.”

For surgeons working in the field, the impact of reconstructive microsurgery extends far beyond the operating theatre.

“These surgeries can take 10 or 12 hours. They are physically and emotionally demanding,” says Dr Liakos. “But when you step back and realise that what you are doing may change the course of a person’s life forever, it gives meaning to every moment spent in theatre.”

As WDGMC continues to build on its reconstructive microsurgery programme and the country’s first fellowship of its kind, the hospital is helping shape a future in which South African patients can access world-class reconstructive care close to home and in which the specialists capable of providing that care are trained locally.

 About the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Donald Gordon Medical Centre

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Donald Gordon Medical Centre is a private academic hospital affiliated with the University of the Witwatersrand. The Centre is recognised for its specialised clinical services, training and research. Through collaboration across the private, academic and public healthcare sectors, WDGMC contributes to advancing access to highly specialised care in South Africa.

The future of cancer research in Africa

8 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University

CIVIS Alliance researchers explore targeted drug delivery for infection-linked colorectal cancer.

Scientists at the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Advanced Drug Delivery Platform (WADDP) are investigating the possibility of an exosome-based colon-targeted drug delivery system for infection-induced colorectal cancer. 

Exosomes are tiny, naturally occurring biological carriers that transport molecules between cells. Because they can fuse with cell membranes, they have the potential to deliver therapeutic agents directly to targeted tissues.

Building African-centred cancer innovation

WADDP is hoping to use exosomes derived from sources that are readily available in Africa, including plants such as sorghum. These exosomes can be engineered to improve stability and loaded with therapeutic agents tailored to different stages of disease.

Current colorectal cancer treatments, including high-dose chemotherapy, can cause significant side effects and affect healthy cells alongside cancer cells. Furthermore, conventional treatments do not always account for the possible role of infections in disease progression. 

Meanwhile, more advanced targeted therapies and immunotherapies, while promising, remain inaccessible for many patients because of their high cost.

A new route for targeted treatment

“We are exploring whether exosomes can be used to carry chemotherapy drugs, antiviral therapies, nucleic acids and immunochemotherapies directly to colorectal tumours or the surrounding tumour microenvironment. The goal is to improve treatment precision while reducing toxicity and unwanted side effects,” said WADDP Director Professor Yahya Choonara, who presented at a recent CIVIS webinar that introduced its African Cancer Immunology and Infection Initiative (TACII).

is a European universities network that includes six African alliance institutions, including Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, which is the only South African university in the . Choonara partners with CIVIS member institutions in CIVIS : Healthcare.

The African Cancer Immunology and Infection Initiative

The issue is becoming increasingly important as rates of early-onset colorectal cancer continue to rise globally, including among adults younger than 50 years of age. Many of these individuals are in the most economically productive years of their lives, adding urgency to efforts to develop more effective and affordable treatment options.

In cancer immunology, some tumours are described as “cold” because they evade detection by the immune system. Others are considered “hot” because they trigger stronger immune responses.

In the CIVIS webinar, Choonara explained that exosome-based approaches may help make tumours more visible to the immune system, potentially improving the effectiveness of treatment.

The platform is also examining whether exosome-based delivery systems could strengthen anti-tumour immune responses.

In some instances, treatment strategies may focus on reducing viral load as part of cancer prevention efforts. In others, the objective is to deliver chemotherapy more precisely to the colorectal region.

“We are trying to drive more targeted, safer, more affordable and more accessible chemotherapies for African populations, and obviously around the world as well,” said Choonara.

Challenges remain, including the need for improved exosome manufacturing and characterisation technologies, as well as evolving regulatory frameworks for advanced therapies. Yet Choonara believes these obstacles should not slow scientific progress.

The presentation formed part of a broader discussion on the future of cancer research in Africa through TACII, a newly established pan-African initiative focused on the intersection of cancer, infection, immunology and the microbiome.

Responding to Africa’s infection-linked cancer burden

TACII was established in response to the unique cancer landscape across Africa, where a substantial proportion of cancers are associated with infectious diseases. Viruses such as HPV, hepatitis B and C, Epstein-Barr virus and HIV continue to shape cancer risk on the continent, while exposure to bacterial, parasitic and other infections may also influence immune responses and treatment outcomes.

“It has become important for researchers to not only discover new therapies, but also how those treatments can be delivered safely, affordably and effectively,” says Choonara.

Through its work on exosome-based, colon-targeted drug delivery systems, WADDP is helping shape an African-centred approach to cancer treatment, one that connects infection biology, pharmaceutical innovation and the needs of African patients.

Mental health apps need people, too

9 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University

New study shows peers may be key to making depression and anxiety apps work in lower-resourced settings.

Digital mental health interventions – such as mood tracking and journalling apps, chatbots, and games – can be a cost-effective way to support adolescents where access to care is scarce and shortages of mental health professionals are acute.

Gamification has become one way of making these interventions more engaging, especially for young people. Instead of presenting therapy as a workbook or information sheet, gamified interventions may use stories, characters, goals, rewards and interactive challenges to help users practise psychological skills.

Depression and anxiety are the leading causes of disability among adolescents, with 20-30% of South Africans between the ages of 10 and 24-years-old affected. Left untreated, these conditions can affect social relationships, disrupt education and increase the likelihood of risky behaviours, suicide and self-harm. Early support can greatly improve later outcomes for young people.

Making digital mental health more human

“We’ve learnt that while apps are innovative, young people still need tools that feel relevant, safe and engaging, which often means a ‘real’ person to interact with alongside the technology. Digital tools can certainly expand the reach of mental health care, but they are not a replacement for human connection,” says Dr , senior researcher at the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt).

Many digital mental health tools struggle to keep users engaged. Young people may download an app, try it once or twice, and then stop using it. For adolescents experiencing depression, motivation, trust and follow-through can be especially difficult.

Moffett, as part of the Digital Delivery of Behavioural Activation to overcome depression and facilitate social and economic transitions amongst adolescents (DoBAt), developed the Kuamsha app, which was supported by weekly phone calls from trained peer mentors.

Developed for use in South Africa and Uganda and co-created with adolescents, Kuamsha is a six-module interactive narrative game based on the core principles of behavioural activation – a psychological approach that helps improve low mood by gradually reconnecting people with meaningful, manageable activities that restore routine, pleasure and a sense of achievement.

Training the people behind the technology

A published in JMIR Mental Health strengthens the case for blended digital mental health care by focusing not on the app itself, but on the peer mentors who support adolescents using it.

“Our latest research looked at whether peer mentors could be recruited, trained, supervised and supported to deliver telephone-based guidance with fidelity and competence,” says Moffett. “While we know that adolescents like using the technology, we needed to understand what kind of human support is needed to make such an intervention meaningful in our contexts.”

Peer relationships are central during adolescence, a developmental period marked by social transition, heightened sensitivity to belonging, and growing independence from adult caregivers. A trained peer mentor may therefore offer something different from a clinician or a parent: a supportive, relatable point of contact who can help an adolescent stay engaged without making the intervention feel overly clinical.

The study included 13 peer mentors in South Africa and four in Uganda, all of whom met the minimum competency standard after training. When researchers independently reviewed recorded support calls, they found that peer mentors were generally delivering the intervention as intended, with high fidelity across both sites.

Moffett says that, to her knowledge, this is the first study to evaluate a structured peer mentor model within a digital mental health intervention in low- and middle-income countries.

The findings suggest that peer mentors can be trained to deliver low-intensity support alongside a digital intervention, provided they receive structured training, ongoing supervision and adequate support. The paper also highlights the importance of adequate supervision, incentives and, in settings where network disruptions are common, periodic in-person contact between peer mentors and supervisors.

A practical bridge to care

Specialist mental health services are often scarce, and adolescents may face stigma, transport barriers, long waiting times and limited access to youth-friendly care. A peer-supported digital intervention cannot solve these structural challenges on its own, but it may offer a practical bridge to care.

The new study does not claim that an app can replace mental health services. Instead, it points to a more grounded and potentially scalable model: app-enabled care supported by trained people.

“The next step is to test whether this support makes a measurable difference, whether better-trained and well-supervised peer mentors help adolescents engage more deeply with the intervention, and whether this leads to better mental health outcomes,” says Moffett.

Calling all Activity Advocates

10 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ launches SA Chapter of Global Alliance for the Promotion of Physical Activity and Health.

Did you know that just 130 minutes of moderate physical activity per week has scientifically proven health and wellbeing benefits?

And it needn’t be pumping iron in the gym or smashing triathlons. Simply hanging laundry, washing the car, taking the stairs, or frequently standing up and stretching at your desk also counts.

Movement is medicine and the more mobile we are, the happier and healthier we are. Which is good news for us, our families and communities, and our country.

That’s why Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ has launched the South African chapter of the Global Alliance for the Promotion of Physical Activity and Health (SA-GAPPA-H).

In fact, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ has been amongst the early advocates of physical activity to ensure there’s a positive knock-on effect for individuals and, ultimately, the country’s public health sector. As a signatory to the GAPPA-H’s in 2025, Professor Demitri Constantinou committed to help advance this agenda at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ and in South Africa.

In May 2026, Constantinou convened an exploratory meeting to launch the South African Chapter of the Global Alliance for the Promotion of Physical Activity and Health (SA-GAPPA-H). This meeting was the crucial first step in building a unified, multi-sectoral front to embed physical activity into the very fabric of our healthcare system and communities.

Professor Fabio Pigozzi, President of the International Federation of Sports Medicine (FIMS), says: "I would like to congratulate you and your colleagues on this important initiative. The launch of the South African Chapter is an important milestone in advancing physical activity promotion and public health, and it represents a valuable example of leadership, collaboration, and commitment to improving the health and well-being of communities."

Pandemic of inactivity

In South Africa, the need for us to move more is urgent. The collision of a triple burden of disease (non-communicable diseases + infectious diseases + environmental/systemic contexts) profoundly affects individual and national health. An inactive nation is more prone to disease and poor health. This is aggravated in a country where poverty and socioeconomic disparities dominate.

Constantinou presented alarming statistics at the exploratory meeting, showing that physical inactivity causes 5 million deaths per year globally. In South Africa, one in three people is inactive, which translates to some 35% of the population. Fifty-one percent of deaths in South Africa are from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), with obesity becoming increasingly prevalent. Here black women are most at risk, with one-third of this cohort living with obesity.

“The evidence is clear: physical activity is a powerful, cost-effective medicine for preventing and managing [NCDs] like heart conditions, diabetes, and cancer. South Africa faces a pressing health crisis, and the time for siloed efforts is over,” said Constantinou. “National targets for physical activity don’t exist in South Africa. This is a gap. Where policies do exist, they are not implemented. We have a national crisis in terms of promoting physical activity.”

The ‘silver bullet’

Professor Georgia Torres, Head of the Department of Exercise Science and Sports Medicine and co-host of the SA-GAPPA-H meeting, concurs: “To promote physical activity, we have to find out how to make people move. This is a gap in South Africa – and a human gap. We get so hung up on the clinical that we forget we’re dealing with human beings, especially those with chronic diseases.”

For Torres, who is also the COO of the , “I do believe exercise is the ‘silver bullet’ and its simplicity is the complexity.”

Beyond complexity towards physical activity

Some 124 stakeholders contributed at the exploratory meeting at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ to launch the SA Chapter of GAPPA-H. They represented a range of stakeholders including students and staff from exercise science and sports medicine-related disciplines at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ and other universities, corporates such as Technogym and Discovery Vitality, NGOs, global public health leaders, traditional and Chinese medicine practitioners, chiropractors and physiotherapists.

A survey of 141 respondents revealed an encouraging 63% indicating that they were ‘very likely’ to get involved in driving the promotion of physical activity and health in their communities. Many in the room put up their hand immediately to volunteer for the interim SA-GAPPA-H steering committee, established that same day.

, who volunteered for the steering committee, is a Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ PhD candidate and human rights activist. Hlongwa says: “The South African Chapter of the Global Alliance for the Promotion of Physical Activity and Health is set to be a melting pot for collaboration and partnership, and expanding to include other networks in the sector in alliance to promote movement and exercise in creative and innovative ways in multidisciplinary sectors.”

Physical activity advocates needed

The promotion of physical activity and health is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires individuals to take up the challenge, to ‘walk the talk’, and to pass the baton on in their communities. No lone individual can get South Africans moving but is starts with one. It starts with you.

The SA-GAPPA-H initiative has a bold vision: a South Africa where physical activity is universally promoted, prescribed, and integrated as a core component of healthcare and community life. Its mission is to drive policy, research, education, and community programmes to achieve this goal.

Constantinou says, “We call on all Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ies to become physical activity advocates, in whichever capacity that resonates with you. We cannot do this work alone. The SA-GAPPA-H is an open network, and we invite volunteers and organisations to join and actively participate. We need all hands-on-deck, across the board.”

Contact the SA Chapter of the GAPPA-H to find out how you can get involved and help get Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ies – and South Africa – moving. For better health for all.

Assisted dying

15 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University

Risks, trade-offs and possible ways forward — World Congress of Bioethics hosted by Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ underscores why it's a hard issue to resolve.

As South Africa confronts a Constitutional challenge over medically assisted dying, international experience offers no single ethical answer, only competing values and difficult choices.

At a recent bioethics discussion hosted by Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University in Johannesburg, Henrik Ahlenius and Michael Lövtrup of the Swedish National Council on Medical Ethics presented a sobering picture of the international debate around assisted dying.

The two researchers were in South Africa for the World Congress of Bioethics, held on African soil for the first time and hosted by the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University.

Their presentation coincided with an important development in South Africa’s long-running assisted-dying debate.

In April 2026, DignitySA approached the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to request that the blanket common-law prohibition on medical assistance in dying be declared unconstitutional and invalid.

Three of the four respondents have now indicated their positions: The Minister of Health and the Health Professions Council of South Africa will oppose the application. The Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development will not oppose it and has said she will abide by the court’s decision. The National Prosecuting Authority has not yet responded, despite its deadline having passed.

DignitySA will now ask the Deputy Judge President of the North Gauteng High Court for a case-management directive setting firm timelines for the remaining papers and future exchanges between the parties. If this cannot be secured, a preliminary court date has been set for 18 September 2026, when DignitySA will ask the court to impose a timetable.

The Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ discussion underscores why the issue is so difficult to resolve

Ahlenius, whose background is in academic moral philosophy, and Lövtrup, formerly a medical journalist, did not make a simple argument for or against legalisation. Instead, they showed how every possible approach involves trade-offs between autonomy and protection, relief from suffering and the preservation of life, individual choice and society’s responsibility to provide care.

Professor Kevin Behrens, Director of the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics, said the South African debate could not be separated from the country’s profound social and healthcare inequalities.

“There is no ethically risk-free position on assisted dying. The challenge is to respect autonomy and respond compassionately to suffering, while providing safeguards to prevent vulnerability, inequality and inadequate access to care from too strongly shaping a person’s decision,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Swedish National Council on Medical Ethics has considered assisted dying since the 1980s but has never reached a stable consensus. It has instead focused on improving the quality of public debate by clarifying terminology, examining international models and separating evidence-based claims from moral convictions.

What is assisted dying?

Terms such as euthanasia, assisted suicide, treatment withdrawal and end-of-life care are often used interchangeably, although they describe different actions.

The Swedish Council defines assisted dying as an intervention provided following an explicit request from a patient, where the intention is that the intervention should cause the patient’s death.

This excludes withdrawing or withholding treatment. It also excludes pain medication intended to relieve suffering, even where shortened life may be a foreseeable but unintended consequence.

Assisted dying may be self-administered, with the patient performing the final act, or practitioner-administered by a doctor, nurse or another authorised professional.

No single international model

Legal frameworks differ widely.

Some jurisdictions limit assisted dying to adults with terminal illnesses who are expected to die within six or 12 months. Others include people with serious, incurable and enduring conditions that are not immediately terminal.

Some recognise only physical illness, while others may consider psychiatric suffering under tightly controlled circumstances. Some require a person to retain decision-making capacity until the medication is administered. Others permit an earlier competent advance directive to remain valid after capacity has been lost.

A restrictive framework may provide stronger protection against error, coercion and abuse, but exclude people experiencing enduring and intolerable suffering.

A broader framework recognises more individual choice, but creates harder questions about prognosis, mental illness, vulnerability and whether suffering is genuinely irremediable.

“There are always trade-offs and nothing really removes the possibility of error,” Lövtrup said.

A system must therefore attempt to protect those who do not freely and competently choose assisted dying, without becoming so restrictive that people who should qualify cannot access it.

Principle and evidence

“The Swedish Council distinguishes arguments based on ethical principles from claims that can be tested against evidence,” Ahlenius said.

Principled objections include the belief that human life should not deliberately be ended, regardless of a person’s request, and that intentionally causing death is incompatible with medicine’s role.

Arguments in favour include autonomy, justice and the belief that competent people should be able to decide how much suffering, deterioration or loss of control they are prepared to endure.

Evidence cannot prove that autonomy is more important than the sanctity of life. But claims that vulnerable people will be disproportionately affected, palliative care will decline, or public trust in doctors will collapse can be investigated in places where assisted dying is already practised.

The evidence presented by Lövtrup complicates some common assumptions. In several well-studied jurisdictions, people accessing assisted dying have been more likely to be highly educated, comparatively affluent, urban and accustomed to independence, rather than society’s poorest people.

However, this evidence cannot simply be transferred to South Africa, where access to healthcare, pain relief, disability support, and home-based care is deeply unequal.

A choice may be formally voluntary but still arise within circumstances where treatment and support that could make life bearable are unavailable.

Care, dependency and choice

Good palliative care can reduce some requests for assisted dying, but international experience suggests that it cannot eliminate them.

Physical pain is not always the main reason people wish to hasten death. Some fear losing control, becoming dependent, being unable to communicate or no longer recognising themselves in the life they are living.

“For some patients, simply knowing assisted dying is available provides reassurance, even if they never use it,” said Ahlenius.

But this presents a particularly difficult question in South Africa: should assisted dying be considered before the country can provide adequate palliative care to everyone? Offering assisted dying where care is absent risks making it a substitute for pain relief, psychological support and human companionship.

Yet withholding it until healthcare inequality has been solved may require individual patients to endure the consequences of a failing system.

Can safeguards remove risk?

Every assisted-dying framework requires voluntariness and decision-making capacity. In practice, these are difficult to assess.

A person’s decision may be influenced by depression, fear, loneliness, financial pressure, inadequate care, family relationships or distrust of medical institutions. Coercion is not always explicit. It may take the form of a person believing that others would be better off without them.

A highly restrictive system may wrongly exclude competent people whose requests are informed and enduring.

“The question is not whether risk can be eliminated, but which risks a society is willing to carry,” says Behrens.

A debate South Africa cannot avoid

As the case moves towards the North Gauteng High Court, institutions like the Steve Biko Centre for Bioethics have an important role to play. “We’re not offering easy answers, but we hope to ensure that the public debate is informed by evidence, international experience and a clear understanding of the values at stake,” says Behrens.

A blueprint for ethical benefit sharing

17 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University

African genomics researchers propose how ethical principles can translate into practical action.

South Africa is pioneering new ways in which to embed ethical benefit-sharing in genomics research through community-led decision-making.

Speaking at the World Congress of Bioethics (WCB) in Johannesburg on 8-10 July, , Assistant Director: Systems & Operations at the SAMRC/Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), presented an operational blueprint for researchers, universities, funders and industry partners seeking to translate ethical principles into practical action.

Now in its 18^th year, the WCB was held on African soil for the first time.

This is significant precisely because the vast wealth of human genetic diversity held by African populations, and the genomic data generated on the continent, have been invaluable for the global scientific community’s understanding of disease and the development of advanced therapies.

Despite this, many communities that have participated in research have failed to see returns from the scientific discoveries their contributions helped make possible.

Ngwarai’s presentation focused on an article in Nature Communications, From urban NPOs to rural knowledge networks: applying benefit-sharing models to African genomics research.

Led by mostly African researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand (Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½), the study provides comprehensive real-world examples of how ethical benefit sharing can be embedded into genomics research through community-led decision-making.

Ethical research starts with listening

Unlike participant reimbursement, which covers costs such as transport or time, community benefit sharing directs resources towards projects identified by the communities themselves. The goal is not individual compensation, but sustainable improvements that contribute to the community long after a research project has ended.

"In genomic studies, the value of data can extend far beyond the original project," says Ngwarai, who was lead author of the paper. "The question is how communities that contribute to research can also share in the value generated from that knowledge over time."

The study considers benefit-sharing initiatives embedded within two genomics collaborations: the Southern African Blood Regulatory (SABR) resource study, developed through the AWI-Gen Collaborative Centre within the Human Heredity and Health in Africa () Consortium, and the South African arm of the African Research on Kidney Disease (ARK) Consortium.

The projects were fully funded by Variant Bio, a US-based genomics company working with Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ researchers to translate genetic discoveries into new medicines.

Ten percent of the project budget was allocated to support community-identified organisations serving participating populations.

"The value of this partnership is that it brings African data and African investigators into the discovery process, creating opportunities for African populations to benefit," says Professor Michèle Ramsay, Director of the Sydney Brenner Institute for Molecular Bioscience (SBIMB).

The approach reflects a growing shift in research ethics – from conducting research on communities to conducting research with communities.

Rather than assuming what communities needed, researchers created consultation mechanisms for communities to identify their own priorities, nominate beneficiary organisations and oversee transparent decision-making.

One model does not fit all communities

The researchers acknowledge that implementing ethical benefit sharing is challenging. Projects must navigate procurement, long-term maintenance, competing stakeholder priorities, gender equity, governance, risks of undue influence and ensure that benefits do not become incentives for research participation.

The study also highlights that ethical community engagement cannot follow a single formula.

In Agincourt, Mpumalanga, and DIMAMO in Limpopo, researchers worked through long-established Community Advisory Boards, traditional leaders, and Public Engagement Offices that have built trust over more than three decades.

In Soweto, where governance structures differ, consultations took place through participant groups, ward councillors, and local non-profit organisations.

The differing approaches demonstrate that meaningful engagement must reflect each community's existing leadership structures, history, and social context.

Turning ethical principles into practical outcomes

Across the Southern African Blood Regulatory project, community consultations resulted in tangible investments which provided aftercare services for children with cerebral palsy, trauma counselling, homes for older people, youth development programmes, and water infrastructure.

In Agincourt, combined funding from the SABR and ARK enabled the installation of 55 JoJo water tanks across 31 villages. A later phase invested approximately US$73,000 in educational infrastructure, equipping 65 schools with generators, digital projectors, printers, and improved internet connectivity.

As genomics continues to expand across Africa, the study demonstrates that community-driven benefit sharing is both ethically sound and practically achievable, offering a model for future genomics research across Africa.

Top 4 Takeaways about Ethical Benefit Sharing

1. Ethical research goes beyond informed consent. Communities are partners – not simply participants – in research and should play an active role in deciding how benefits are shared.
2. Benefit sharing should be community-led. Communities should identify organisations and projects that address their priorities.
3. Context matters. Rural and urban communities require different engagement and governance models. Flexible, locally appropriate approaches are essential.
4. Trust is built over time. Long-term relationships, Community Advisory Boards and transparent governance create stronger, more ethical research partnerships.

Intellectual property in sports is a surprising way to innovate

21 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Innovation Centre

Innovation is often considered to be the purview of entrepreneurs and scientists, but sport has untapped potential too.

The Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Innovation Centre (WIC), under the leadership of the Innovation Support unit, hosted a successful event in celebration of World Intellectual Property (IP) Day on 08 May 2026 at the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Library Lawns. It explored this topic under the global theme ’IP and Sports: Ready, Set, Innovate’.

Beyond athletic competition, sports intersect with various sectors such as fashion, entertainment, media, health, gaming, and consumer goods. Intellectual property rights — including patents, trademarks, designs, and copyrights — play a critical role in stimulating innovation, enabling this cross-industry collaboration, and driving economic growth.

The event brought together researchers, students, representatives from the National Intellectual Property Management Office (NIPMO), and invited guests, including a specialist attorney in Sports Law who served as the keynote speaker.

During his opening address at the local event, the Director of the WIC, Letlotlo Phohole, reflected on the significance of the topic within the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University context and how it resonates deeply.

“We are not only a place of academic excellence; we are a powerhouse of sporting excellence and innovation,” he explained. “For over 100 years, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Sport has produced legends — Springboks, Olympians, and national representatives across rugby, football, hockey, basketball, and many other sporting codes.”

Phohole further congratulated the FNB Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Blues rugby team for their outstanding achievement in securing the 2026 Varsity Shield title through an unbeaten campaign, earning promotion to the Varsity Cup.

Lindiwe Mashimbye is responsible for the funds and incentives management directorate at NIPMO. She shared how NIPMO supports innovation through different incentives and organisational support, like capacity building in the form of IP management training, internships, and the WIPO–SA Summer School.

Professor Lynn Morris, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Innovation at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, highlighted the growing role of sports and innovation at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University, particularly through the development of the new Brian and Dorothy Zylstra Sports Complex, a flagship centenary project currently nearing completion. Some of the research activities taking place at the centre may generate IP which may be eligible for protection, utilisation and commercialisation.

The facility will include state-of-the-art sports science and exercise medicine research laboratories, high-performance gyms, aquatics centres, and elite athlete residences, further positioning Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ as a leader in sports research and innovation.

The keynote speaker, Farai Razano, specialises in sports and entertainment law and has represented a wide range of clients, including professional athletes, sports clubs, sports associations, and production companies within the film and television industries.

During his talk, Razano shared valuable insights into the commercialisation of image rights and the importance of intellectual property protection for athletes and sports professionals.

“Protecting your image rights is not sufficient on its own. It is equally important to ensure that you have watertight contracts that complement and strengthen those rights,” he advised.

is an international initiative led by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to recognise the importance of ideas, innovation, and creativity in driving social and economic progress.

The day aims to raise awareness about intellectual property rights and their role in fostering an environment where innovation can flourish, and where creators and innovators are acknowledged and rewarded for their contributions to society.

The celebration also highlights the significance of intellectual property in everyday life and promotes a culture of creativity, collaboration, and sustainable development.

The local event successfully reinforced the importance of intellectual property in sports and innovation while encouraging students, researchers, and aspiring entrepreneurs to recognise and protect the value of their ideas and creative contributions.

African-German Centre of Excellence to power SA's Just Energy Transition

21 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University

The ENERGISE Centre will enable a Just Energy Transition through renewable energy, governance and innovative sustainable entrepreneurship.

Led in Africa by Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University, it will advance transdisciplinary research, postgraduate education and Living Labs to develop practical solutions for South Africa's evolving energy sector.

South Africa’s energy transition is often discussed in terms of renewable energy, grid strengthening, storage improvements, and reducing dependence on coal.

The new ENERGISE Centre of Excellence asks a broader question, and that is, how can the country’s energy transition also support justice, livelihoods, local innovation and inform policy?

Energy access as a route to opportunity

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University, the Technical University of Munich, the University of Johannesburg, Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Venda have partnered to move the country towards a cleaner energy future to expand opportunity, protect vulnerable communities and support local economic development. Funded through a highly competitive international call supported by DAAD (the German Academic Exchange Service), the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, and the German Federal Foreign Office, the ENERGISE Centre of Excellence is a South Africa–Germany collaboration that brings together universities, communities, policymakers, industry, and civil society to address the practical challenges of the energy transition.

The Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ flagship project will focus on peri-urban energy challenges and community electrification, including how decentralised energy systems can support income-generating activity in communities affected by energy poverty and the shift away from coal.

A distinctive feature of ENERGISE is its Living Lab approach. These Living Labs will serve as real-world spaces where researchers, students, communities, and external partners can test, adapt, and learn from energy solutions in practice.

This shift from household electrification towards interconnected community energy systems is unique to the Centre’s vision. “It asks how electricity can do more than meet basic needs: how it can support small enterprises, local services, food preparation, digital access and other forms of productive work,” says Prof Chandima Gomes, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ ENERGISE director.

Engineering, policy and entrepreneurship in one Centre

The Centre brings together three interlinked areas: engineering, policy and entrepreneurship.

The engineering component will focus on technical energy solutions that are affordable, scalable and responsive to local needs. The policy component will examine the regulatory, governance and institutional conditions needed to support a fair energy transition. The entrepreneurship component will explore how new ventures, local enterprises and community-led business models can help create livelihoods and expand access to energy services.

At Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, the Centre will connect engineering expertise from the School of Electrical & Information Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment with energy innovation, policy and entrepreneurship, in collaboration with the African Energy Leadership Centre (AELC) at the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Business School.

“This reflects the Centre’s broader interdisciplinary model, which prepares students and researchers to work across the boundaries between technology, policy, business and society,” says Dr Yu-Chieh Jessie Yen, lead coordinator of the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ ENERGISE Centre.

Training the next generation of energy leaders

The Centre will also support teaching, research and capacity building from postgraduate study to early-career research.

This will include student innovation competitions, interdisciplinary teaching, masters and doctoral research, academic exchange between South Africa and Germany, digital learning modules, training for university staff, and opportunities for researchers to work with real-world energy transition challenges.

The research component of ENERGISE will support early-career researchers through jointly structured, application-oriented doctoral programmes focused on interdisciplinary and participatory research.

“As South Africa continues to navigate its energy insecurity, grid constraints and the social consequences of moving away from coal, ENERGISE aims to contribute practical, locally grounded solutions using renewable energy,” says Yen

The ENERGISE Centre of Excellence will bring together South African and German partners to advance transdisciplinary research, innovation, and capacity building. By connecting technology, policy, entrepreneurship, and community knowledge, ENERGISE aims to help shape a just, inclusive, and sustainable energy future. 

About ENERGISE

ENERGISE stands for ENabling a Just Energy Transition through Renewable Energy, Governance, and Innovative Sustainable Entrepreneurship. The Centre brings together the Technical University of Munich, the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Johannesburg, Tshwane University of Technology and the University of Venda. It focuses on interdisciplinary education, research, Living Labs, policy engagement and sustainable entrepreneurship for South Africa’s Just Energy Transition.

Centres of Excellence (CoEs) are a term used to cover a broad range of research entities that concentrate existing excellence, capacity and resources. The aim is to elevate the pursuit of research excellence and capacity development

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ bags four South African ‘Science Oscars’

22 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University

Scientists win in Lifetime, Healthy Ageing special theme, Researcher, and Innovation in SMMEs categories.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ scientists won in four categories at the 2025/2026 NSTF-South32 Awards. Known as the South African ‘Science Oscars’, the annual hybrid gala events took place simultaneously in Johannesburg and Cape Town on Thursday, 16 July. Established in 1998, the Awards are South Africa’s largest and most prestigious national SET and innovation awards.

The NSTF-South32 Awards celebrate individuals, teams and organisations that have made outstanding contributions to science, engineering, technology and innovation in South Africa.

Sixteen Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ scientists were finalists across 16 categories (with some named as finalists in more than one category) and secure four awards. Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ ultimately bagged four awards in categories strategically significant to the University.

Professor Rachel Jewkes won the Lifetime Award, Professors Kathleen Kahn and Stephen Tollman received the Special Annual Theme Award: Healthy Ageing, Professor Musa Manzi took home the TW Kambule-NSTF Researcher award, and Professor Bruce Mellado and the AIrSynQ Systems team won the Innovation in small, medium and micro enterprises (SMME) award.

“The NSTF winners personify the University’s strengths in the areas of and dedication to the values of improving population health, optimising all parts of the human life course, advancing technological innovations in the service of humanity, and ensuring equitable environmental futures,” says Professor Brett Bowman, Director of Research Development at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½.  

“These awards therefore provide reassuring evidence that Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½’ strategic commitment to producing knowledge with impact for the global good is consistently finding traction – not only at the highest levels of the global community of science but also making a meaningfully positive contribution to the everyday lives of people and the health of the planet.” 

A lifetime fighting back against GBV

Professor received the Lifetime Award for her leadership in research on gender-based violence (GBV) and health over the past three decades. Jewkes is an Honorary Professor in the School of Public Health at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ and Executive Scientist at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), where she has been for some 30 years.

Her research has had a profound global impact, empowering women and girls, shaping evidence-based policy, and addressing one of the most urgent social and public health challenges of our time.

“When we started work 30 years ago, nobody recognised gender-based violence. They thought it was trivial, that it was a private matter. They thought it was unimportant [and that] it didn’t cause health problems and that it wasn’t a real issue. And over the past 30 years … through our research, we’ve shown what an enormous problem it is,” said Jewkes in her acceptance, adding that she thinks that South Africa is a country that has more research on gender-based violence, including rape and femicide, than almost any other country in the world.

Explaining the research impact over 30 years on, Jewkes said: “We’ve shown the huge number of different communities who bear the multiple burdens of disadvantage in this country and also carry the weight of this epidemic of gender-based violence and femicide. We’ve shown the enormous health impact and how important gender-based violence is in driving the HIV epidemic, particularly amongst women. And then we’ve moved on and helped the government put together the response – particularly the health sector response – but also [to] evaluate our health justice system and what the police are doing in terms of response. We’ve worked to answer that incredibly important question: is gender-based violence preventable? And, if so, how do you do it? That has been the platform of work that we’ve been involved in for much of the past 30 years.”

Jewkes said that she was proud that, today, gender-based violence is addressed through one of the Sustainable Development Goals and that GBV is “absolutely recognised as being an incredibly important scourge permeating across the entire world”.

She acknowledged the incredible bravery of all the women who have stood up and shared their lives that enabled understanding the GBV epidemic.  “And many of them have done this with considerable personal risk, because of the backlash of speaking up against gender-based violence, so I salute those women and thank them for their enormous contribution,” she said.

Jewkes concluded: “This award is not the end of our work, but it is an incredibly important milestone in recognising the contribution of this field, and that we will go on and redouble our efforts to try and address the other really important questions. Because we can’t end until gender-based violence is ended.”

Addressing the crisis of Africans ageing younger

The NSTF’s theme for 2026 is ‘Healthy Ageing’ in recognition of the Decade of Healthy Ageing as proclaimed by the United Nations (UN). The aims are to change the attitudes of society towards aging, including creating age-friendly environments, delivering integrated and person-centred health care, and access to long-term care for those who need it. A was made in recognition of this theme.

The Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ SAMRC/Agincourt team, Professors Kathleen Kahn and Stephen Tollman, won the Special Annual Theme Award: Healthy Ageing, for their contribution to building evidence for healthy ageing across the life course in South and sub-Saharan Africa.

Kahn is Principal Scientist and Tollman is the Director at the SAMRC/Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt). Both are also Research Professors in the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ School of Public Health.

Research at the SAMRC/Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½-Agincourt research unit is driven by deep, long-standing partnerships with local communities over 30 years, which adopts a future-focused longitudinal approach, and data-driven insights that track evolving health and social dynamics.

In the acceptance speech delivered jointly by Kahn and Tollman, Kahn credited their scientific partners, partners in South Africa, Africa and internationally, and students and funders, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University and the SAMRC.

“Our work is population-based in the rural context, so I want to make special mention of our field teams and those who work with our communities and in community engagement, who understand the context and the culture of the populations with whom we work. Without these people, we’d never be able to produce the rigorous science that is so vital to an evidence base,” said Kahn.

“I also want to acknowledge our participants in our research endeavours who work with us to navigate complexities of capturing that population-based data in challenging environments, and that help us to produce the valid science and evidence that is so vital.”

Expounding on the Healthy Ageing special theme, Tollman stressed that ageing across the life course is critical – from conception, through childhood, through adolescence into youth, and into mature and older ages – citing this as one of the biggest challenges we face in South Africa.

“As a consequence of the adversity and uneven socioeconomic development, people age earlier. They age younger. And our contributions, our endeavours as a community, are to turn that around. And it is possible,” he said. “So much of what we all do along the life course positively influences ageing in the ability to contribute in those later years to society. And yes, there are social contributions as well. The contributions of the older person’s grant – which are not only to an individual – male an enormous difference. And we’re all aware that work, that jobs, employment, are important to cognitive health … the efforts around ageing, the urgent science of brain health, are really gathering momentum, not only in South Africa but across the continent.”

Digging deep to shake-up seismic research

Associate Professor Musa Manzi was a in the TW Kambule-NSTF Researcher Award category, for his contribution to developing novel, cost-saving surface and in-mine seismic techniques to explore resources, mitigate geohazards, and improve infrastructure development.

In 2018, Manzi won the 2017/2018 NSFT-South32 Award for Emerging Researcher. 

Manzi is a Reader in the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ School of Geosciences and Director of the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Seismic Research Centre, which he established in 2015. The Centre conducts cutting-edge research with a focus on mineral exploration, oil and gas, and petroleum engineering, and training postgraduate students.

“As the demand for critical metals continues to rise due to their importance in global industries and climate initiatives, my research focuses on developing innovative seismic technologies to locate deep-seated mineral deposits and address risks associated with deep mining. My goal is to bridge the gap between the discovery of minerals and to help protect miners working in challenging mining conditions using novel seismic technologies,” said Manzi later (he was unable to attend the Awards personally).

He wrote, “I want to extend my gratitude to Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University for nominating me and for its unwavering support throughout the peaks and troughs of my academic journey. I strongly believe that making a national impact through geoscience research requires a collaborative effort—it's about a community of colleagues, students, industry sponsors, and stakeholders working together to enhance the role of science in serving society.”

A breath of fresh air in SMME innovation

The for Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMMEs) went to the AIrSynQ Systems team, led by Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Physics Professor Bruce Mellado.

AirSynQ has transformed air quality monitoring research into an AI-powered environmental risk service.

AlrSynQ Systems (Pty) Ltd, of which Mellado is CEO, were awarded for turning the South African Consortium of Air Quality Monitoring (SACAQM)/AIr innovation into a scalable, AI-powered environmental risk service that helps organisations act early to protect health, safety and productivity across workplaces and communities.

"This award demonstrates the leading role that fundamental research can play in enabling sustainable technology transfer and innovation. AI makes advanced analytics and intelligence cost-effective and scalable, while Agentic AI further improves the technology’s reliability and efficiency,” said Mellado later, who was unable to attend in person. AIrSynQ colleagues Dr Edward Nkadimeng and Mr Dominique Adams were present and accepted the award.

Professor Lynn Morris, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Innovation at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University, says: “We are immensely proud of our researchers and innovators, whose achievements at the 2026 NSTF Awards reflect the breadth, excellence and real-world influence of research at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½. Guided by a commitment to producing knowledge with impact and advancing the global good, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ continues to demonstrate how outstanding research and innovation can improve lives, strengthen communities and address some of society’s most pressing challenges.

About the 2026 NSTF-South32 Awards

There were 524 nominations across the 16 categories for the 2026 awards, with the Research Software category added for the first time. This year also saw a record number of 96 finalists.

Adjudication Panel Chair, Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Professor Gillian Drennan, urged scientists to encourage nominations in future in the Clinician-Scientist and Engineering Research Capacity Development categories, which received limited entries this year.

The national NSTF-South32 Awards are the largest SET and innovation awards in SA since 1998. They were the first science awards in the country after the change of government in 1994. An important aspect of the Awards is the showcasing of South African SET and innovation to the public, which includes the year-long engagement programme between the winners and school learners, called the NSTF Share ‘n Dare Programme. These top professionals share their career knowledge and experiences with young people, and ‘dare’ them to follow in their footsteps.

Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½-led seismic research project advances scientific understanding of the Karoo Basin

24 July 2026 - Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ University

The project aims to provide unbiased, science-based information about the region’s subsurface geology, using novel and non-invasive methods.

A team of scientists from the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Seismic Research Centre within the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ School of Geosciences has completed the first phase of a national seismic research initiative designed to map, for the first time at this scale, what lies beneath one of South Africa’s most prominent landscapes, the Karoo Basin.

The Karoo Geophysical Research Project, led by Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ and undertaken on behalf of the Petroleum Agency South Africa (PASA), is a national research effort aimed at mapping the subsurface geology of the Karoo using non-invasive methods to study and improve the understanding of the regional subsurface geology of the south-central Karoo Basin.

Professor Musa Manzi, Director of the Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ Seismic Research Centre and project lead, said the project aims to provide unbiased, science-based information about the region’s subsurface geology. “While the surface geology of the Karoo is well-documented, the large-scale and deep subsurface geology remains relatively underexplored and unknown. We’re using novel, cost-effective and environmentally friendly airborne and ground-based geophysical methods to scan, at a provincial scale, the shallow and deep subsurface geology of the Karoo.”

“The data will also be used to identify geological features that may host and control groundwater, minerals, and energy resources. Additionally, we plan to develop a deeper knowledge of potential geohazards and environmental risks associated with the development of natural resources. The scarcity of groundwater in the Karoo is a well-documented issue. We plan to use geophysics to address groundwater resource knowledge gaps to support future opportunities for economic development and help inform decision-making about groundwater use to protect environmental and cultural assets.”

Manzi explained that this will be the first comprehensive data to provide stakeholders with credible and accurate information about what’s happening below the Karoo’s surface. This, he said, will allow for decisions to be informed by science rather than speculation.

Manzi was named a  in the TW Kambule-NSTF Researcher Award category at the 2025/2026 NSTF-South32 Awards, for his contribution to developing novel, cost-saving surface and in-mine seismic techniques to explore resources, mitigate geohazards, and improve infrastructure development.

The Karoo Basin has for years been at the centre of public debate, particularly in relation to shale gas. A moratorium on shale gas exploration remains in place. The Karoo Geophysical Research Project is a scientific study and doesn’t involve blasting, drilling, hydraulic fracturing or resource extraction. Instead, Manzi says, it seeks to generate high-resolution, regional geophysical data on the structure, composition and integrity of the Karoo Basin, information that has long been identified as a gap in South Africa’s geoscientific knowledge base.

The project utilises the seismic method as the primary tool for subsurface scanning, supported by airborne magnetic and magnetotelluric (MT) methods. In line with environmental legislation, the seismic surveys went through a Basic Assessment (BA) process. Specialist environmental studies were conducted alongside stakeholder engagements and public participation. Safety, social and environmental management plans were built into the field operations. To minimise environmental footprint, seismic surveys are conducted along the public road reserve.

Due to the size of the study area, the project is divided into Phases 1 and 2, with Phase 1 covering the Western Cape Province and Phase 2 covering the Eastern Cape and a small part of the Northern Cape. Phase 1 of the seismic surveys was launched in November 2025 in Beaufort West, and the data acquisition was completed in February 2026. In March 2026, the project team mobilised to the Eastern Cape, where seismic data are being acquired until August 2026.

The science behind the project

Conventional regional seismic surveys often provide low-resolution data, largely because they are constrained to a limited frequency band. This project uses state-of-the-art broadband seismic technology, designed by Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½ researchers.

The project also uses nodal technology, where modern wireless sensors and recording units are deployed instead of standard cabled seismic systems. Small sensors are placed at regular intervals along predetermined survey lines along the public road reserves to record controlled vibrations generated by a specialised vibroseis truck.

The truck lowers a metal plate to the ground, sending broadband frequency seismic wave energy into the subsurface. The nodes capture how these waves travel through different rock layers and return to the surface. Variations in the returning signals allow scientists to determine the depth, structure, and physical properties of subsurface formations, including faults, intrusions, and natural resources.

In terms of geographic scale, the project is the largest land-based seismic research initiative of its kind undertaken in South Africa. It’s one of the most extensive academic-led seismic mapping efforts at this scale in the world.

Training, employment, and policy relevance

In addition to its scientific objectives, the project has also contributed to local employment and skills development. Community members were recruited and trained to support field operations, and postgraduate students, early-career researchers, and PASA geoscientists gained practical experience in large-scale seismic data acquisition and field management.

Marcus Mkhomazi, field operations manager on the project and a PhD candidate at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, said the scale of the work has been formative for him as a student. He joined the Seismic Research Centre in 2022 and has been involved in multiple projects prior to the Karoo Geophysical Research initiative. His doctoral research focuses on seismic data acquisition and processing, with the Karoo project providing an opportunity to apply advanced techniques at scale.

“Being part of this national project has given me a broader idea of what seismic is all about from a student perspective. Being a field operations manager has given me hands-on experience in managing a big seismic crew, which is going to be valuable when I go into the industry.”

According to Prof Manzi and Dr. Michael Westgate, the project’s co-technical lead and researcher at Ñî¹óåú´«Ã½, beyond its scientific objectives, the project has direct implications for public resource management. By mapping fault systems, rock intrusions and groundwater reservoirs, the data can help identify areas where freshwater aquifers may be vulnerable to contamination from deeper saline systems. It also enables policy-makers to assess geological risks before any potential development activity is contemplated.

From a governance perspective, the project is an important step in building a scientific foundation for future policy decisions related to land use, groundwater protection, energy planning, and mineral development.

Following the Phase 2 data acquisition in the Eastern Cape, the team will analyze and integrate the geophysical data for final interpretation and geological modeling. The project is scheduled for completion in September 2027.

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