The important event will take place at Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, South Africa, on June 20-22, 2023.

In his invitation, the Director, of Africa Collaborative Grants and Initiatives, Michael Nxumalo, stated: “The Future Earth Africa Hub, hosted by the National Research Foundation (NRF) is pleased to invite you to the Sustainability Research & Innovation Congress 2023 (SRI2023) Africa satellite event to be held at Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha during 20-22 June 2023.

“SRI is an annual conference established by the Belmont Forum and Future Earth that promotes transdisciplinarity in sustainability research. SRI provides a space of dynamic advocacy for sustainability scholarship, innovation, collaboration, and action, and aims to connect global leaders, experts, industry, practitioners, and innovators to inspire action that promotes transformation in sustainability.

“The aim of the satellite event is to explore regional action-forward approaches to sustainability research and innovation and integrate these insights into the SRI2023 congress programme which will take place in Panama. The SRI Africa satellite event will be a combination of cross-cutting plenary sessions, parallel thematic sessions, and live discussion tables as shown in the attached conference programme.

“In this context, we would like to invite you to provide a 20-minute keynote address in the session titled: Strengthening Global South Research Leadership, followed by a moderated panel discussion. We believe that your contribution will provide a valuable perspective that will inspire participants and panelists to have a strategic discussion around this theme. We would therefore be honored if you would accept our invitation and join us onsite.”

The event has National Research Foundation, Science Innovation, Belmont Forum, futurearth and Nelson Mandela University as partners.

In information obtained from its website, the NRF stated that it is “an independent statutory body established through the National Research Foundation Act (Act No 23 of 1998), following a system-wide review conducted for the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (DACST). The new entity incorporated the functions of the research funding agencies that were previously servicing various sections of the research community, namely the former Centre for Science Development (CSD) of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the former Foundation for Research Development (FRD) that included several National Research Facilities.

“As a government-mandated research and science development agency the NRF funds research, the development of high-end Human Capacity, and critical research infrastructure to promote knowledge production across all disciplinary fields. The goal of the NRF is to create innovative funding instruments, advance research career development, increase public science engagement and establish leading-edge research platforms that will transform the scientific landscape and inspire a representative research community to aspire to global competitiveness. The NRF promotes South African research and innovation interests across the country and internationally, and together with research institutions, business, industry and international partners we build bridges between research communities for mutual benefit that contributes to National Development.”