Marine research gets a boost this year with a 17% increase in allocation of funding from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEA&T). The signing of a contract for funding to the value of R2 million renewed and confirmed the collaboration between DEA&T and the National Research Foundation (NRF), as a funding agency, in supporting the marine research community in South Africa. The South African Network for Coastal and Oceanic Research (SANCOR), which serves the interests of this community, is among the organisations that will benefit from this increase in funding. According to Dr Johann Augustyn of Marine and Coastal Management (MCM) at DEA&T, the marine science community also stands to gain from further collaboration between DEA&T and the NRF once an initiative to outsource other research activities has been finalised by the Department. "Minister Valli Moosa and Dr Crispian Olver, the Director-General, are strongly in favour of supporting marine research in South Africa and are willing to provide additional funding for the upliftment of research standards," says Augustyn.

 

The concept of outsourcing certain research has been approved by the Minister and a contract is being drawn up to the effect that provincially sourced research for which MCM is responsible will be managed by the NRF on an experimental basis in 2001/2002. By the 2002/2003 financial year, most of the Department's outsourced marine research will be managed by the NRF.

For more information, contact Johan Pauw

Tel: (012) 481-4056/4031, Email: johan@nrf.ac.za