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South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) now hosts Africa’s only laboratory equipped to test and verify imported or locally produced products that are being promoted as biodegradable.
This follows the recent handover of an automated testing facility and equipment, valued at R5 million, to the CSIR by the Japanese government, through the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). The testing laboratory is capable of establishing the conditions and timeframes for the biodegradation of materials. Tests can be performed under different conditions – aerobic (compost, soil, freshwater and marine) and anaerobic.
Today, His Majesty the King of the Belgians and South Africa’s Director-General of the Department of Science and Innovation, Dr Phil Mjwara visited a new indoor energy storage testbed at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) that will become fully operational in May this year.
The new infrastructure and associated expertise will strengthen South Africa’s ability to support local players in the battery value chain, thereby boosting the country’s capabilities in renewable energy storage. The collaboration falls within the ambit of a collaboration agreement between the CSIR and VITO, the Flemish Institute for Technological Research.
Africa’s leading research, development and innovation organisation, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has reached a major milestone, as today, 5 October 2020, marks 75 years of its existence.
Established in 1945, the CSIR has, for seven and a half decades, dedicated its resources to improving the quality of life of South Africans through ground-breaking research, development and innovation.
The organisation’s mandate has remained the intrinsic guiding force over the years, with the focus having been refined to respond to the global and local context. A refined focus resulted in, for example, the spin out of a number of institutions and the establishment of science councils, such as the South African Bureau of Standards, National Research Foundation, National Metrology Institute of South Africa, and the Human Sciences Research Council.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), an entity of the Department of Science and Innovation celebrates being crowned South Africa’s top employer. The 2021 Top Employers have been announced and the CSIR was recognised as a Top Employer in the country.
Being certified as a Top Employer showcases an organisation’s dedication to a better work environment and exhibits this through excellent human resources (HR) policies and people practices.
The Top Employers Institute programme certifies organisations based on the participation and results of their HR Best Practices Survey. This survey covers six HR domains consisting of 20 topics such as People Strategy, Work Environment, Talent Acquisition, Learning, Well-being and Diversity and Inclusion and more.
Media invite
Innovative technologies developed by the CSIR to improve safety and security in the country will be displayed at the technology demonstration day event taking place in Pretoria on 7 February 2019.
The purpose of the event is to showcase the latest defence and security related technologies that have reached advanced stages of technological maturity where further industrialisation can take place.
On 8th of March 2019, the CSIR launched a state-of-the-art online climate risk profiling and adaptation tool to assist municipalities across South Africa to assess climate risks and growth pressures, by implementing adaptation actions towards the development of climate resilient human settlements.
“The open access, online tool – named the Green Book – is intended to be an applied knowledge resource for municipalities to address climate change impacts and vulnerabilities in human settlements.
The CSIR has released the findings of a life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) of grocery carrier bags in South Africa. LCSA is a useful tool that unpacks the environmental, social and economic impacts of a product throughout its life cycle. The study shows that reusable plastic carrier bags are the best option in South Africa, as they have a subtantially lower environmental impact compared to single-use bags – provided that consumers do actually reuse them.
Media statement
The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) and the CSIR are strengthening their partnership through formalised technical cooperation to accelerate technology development in Africa.
The renewed cooperation covers the conduct of applied research, development and innovation (RDI) with a strong focus on localised transformative technologies and accelerating their deployment for socioeconomic transformation.
Conventional reading is currently accessible only to the traditionally literate person. Many school learners face barriers to reading, and consequently learning, due to early literacy difficulties, visual impairment, dyslexia and other special educational needs. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is helping to change this with the development of a user-friendly application (app) that adds and synchronises human-narrated or computer-generated audio to text.
With the expertise and involvement of a team of port and coastal engineers from the CSIR, the website of the CLDSA now offers daily water temperature readings of the Atlantic water temperature enveloping Robben Island. This is set to benefit the iconic isle that continues to attract swimmers and athletes from across the world, notably, marathon swimmers who enjoy extreme endurance and adventure in the chilly waters off Cape Town.