On 8 February 2008, the German Minister of Science and Higher Education, Ms Annette Schavan, visited South Africa to conduct high-level discussions with Minister Mangena. She also met with heads of science and technology research institutions and universities in SA. The meetings were aimed at discussing ways of further elevating and strengthening cooperation between SA and Germany within the existing S&T agreement.
The cooperation has grown since the meeting of the two ministers. During the visit, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed, paving the way for the inaugural Workshop on Sustainable Research in June 2008, followed by a Joint Committee Meeting, in Bonn, Germany.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa and the Fraunhofer institute initiated discussions on innovation cooperation, followed by a delegation visiting South Africa in May 2008. Fraunhofer has also indicated interest in sponsoring the Maths and Science initiatives of the DAAD (the German Academic Exchange Service), to be linked to the JIPSA initiative.
New research areas agreed upon between the two countries are: Sustainable Research, Biocoastal Systems, Energy Systems Analysis, and Indicators Development for Knowledge Economy.
Technical Expert
The successful collaboration between Germany and South Africa since the signing of the Science and Technology Agreement has provided opportunities to elevate the existing cooperation initiatives and to explore new areas of cooperation. The Department of Science and Technology will host a German technical assistant, to work on the OBC Sub-Programme for a period of about two years. The main focus will be on strengthening bilateral cooperation with European countries.
Inkaba yeAfrica (IyA)
The origin of the Inkaba yeAfrica German-SA project goes back to 2001, when discussions about how to better link the earth science communities in South Africa and Germany were initiated. The project is divided into three interlinked categories, namely Heart of Africa, Living Africa and Margins of Africa. The three categories respectively concern energy transfer from core to space; geophysical, geological and geochemical investigation of the oceans, sediments, resources and climate that developed between and around the margins of Southern Africa; and the causes, mechanisms and consequences of continental breakup, and the investigation of the nature of ocean-continent boundary.
An important component of the project is the Capacity Building Initiative for Young Scientists for both countries. The young scientists contributed to the product of this research collaboration in the form of research entries in the South African Journal of Geology, Volume 110 (2007), with over 25 scientific papers. The project's research programme culminated in a conference held at the Wild Coast Sun in the Eastern Cape on 22 and 23 October 2007. The outcome was the recommendation that phase two of the research programme that is being carried out in both countries, should be extended to other universities within and outside South
Africa.
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