News
In 2019, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) forum, organised and hosted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland, celebrated its 10th anniversary. The CSIR’s Dr Jabu Mtsweni served as one of 14 high-level track facilitators, having been nominated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
The event took place from 8 to 12 April 2019, under the theme “Information and Communication Technologies for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals”.
South Africa will soon join the World Economic Forum's Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Network (C4IR Network) alongside China, India and Japan by launching an Affiliate Centre.
This comes as the world prepares for the unprecedented transformation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), enabled by the convergence of digital, physical and biological technologies which are disrupting existing industries and the production and consumption of goods and services.
The Data Intensive Research Initiative of South Africa (DIRISA) recently launched its South African Data Management Planning tool (SA-DMP), which is used to create and share data management plans that meet funder requirements. Good data management enables the location, increased sharing and reuse of data, and reduces the duplication of data. These attributes of good data management reduce costs and efforts in generating data. A data management tool, coupled with sound data management practices, also supports the findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable principles of open data.
Monday, 1 April 2019 signalled the start of the implementation of a new strategic direction for the CSIR, which in 2020 will turn 75. The new strategy is built around the vision of accelerating socioeconomic prosperity in South Africa through leading innovation.
The CSIR’s Port Elizabeth-based textile library collection is available to be given as a donation to an industry related organisation in the region.
The textile collection is unique on the African continent. It comprises 2 800 books, 22 theses/dissertations and 100+ journal titles covering textile fibres, as well as chemistry and engineering subject areas.
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The CSIR has partnered with the Gauteng Department of Roads and Transport to conduct a large-scale survey on the use of public transport in the Gauteng province.
More than 36 000 households have been selected to participate in this survey, which aims to assist government to plan for future investments in transport infrastructure in the province.
African Laser Centre grant holder and CSIR Biophotonics senior researcher, Dr Sello Manoto and Dr Ahmed El-Hussein from Cairo University, Egypt – have joined their laser expertise to work on a scientific research project that focuses on a “Point-of-care photonic crystal biosensor for HIV detection and viral load quantification”.
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As temperatures continue to rise and climate conditions generally become drier, necessary measures have to be taken to mitigate the risks and impacts of climate change across South African municipalities.
Since its inception, the Rental Pool Programme has been supporting laser-based research at South African universities through the Rental Pool Fund, which has been supporting laser-based research programmes in the National System of Innovation (NSI) for 18 years.