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Johannesburg – Sasol has allocated R15m to South African universities to conduct research in selected areas of strategic interest to the company.
Sasol's university support programme wants to contribute towards migrating SA to a high-end skills and knowledge economy.
To date, Sasol has contributed more than R200m towards university research initiatives since the inception of its university support programme in 2005.
In addition to procuring essential equipment and facilitating the exchange of knowledge and expertise among local and international experts, the funding has also served to support young academics in becoming established researchers. This helps to fill the scarce skills gap identified by the National Research Foundation.
In September last year Sasol sent out an open call to all local universities and universities of technology for research proposals. More than 200 proposals were received. Of these, 39 have been selected for research grants.
Beneficiaries include the universities of Fort Hare, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan, Stellenbosch, Cape Town, Johannesburg, North West, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Free State and Pretoria, as well as the Vaal University of Technology.
“A striking feature of the successful applicants is the diversity and quality of their proposals,” said Dr Thulani Dlamini, vice president: strategic research and technology, and the Centre for Innovation and Business Impact at Sasol.
“That the research grants were awarded on a highly competitive basis also shows that African researchers at historically black universities can hold their own against their other well-resourced counterparts.”
