SCIENTISTS AND STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGING AT THE SOUTH AFRICA SCIENCE FORUM 2016

The second South Africa Science Forum 2016, which was held from December 8 -9 at the International Convention Centre of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa (SA) was a great opportunity for SIN Officers (Nairobi, Kenya; Cape Town, South Africa; and Lagos, Nigeria) to meet and interact with various stakeholders and inform them about SIN and the Newton Fund.

It was great meeting with Professor Robin Grimes, learning from him as he spoke about his experiences of being a Chief Scientific Adviser in the Foreign Office during one of his pre-conference talks at the Department for International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) and made a presentation about UK Commitment to Global Science and Innovation Leadership Now and Post-Brexit at the Meraka within the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). It was great listening to Robin and other Panellists which the Science and Innovation Network organized and made arrangements for to attend the Science Forum as commentators to share from their wealth of experience about African science, research and development issues and proffer possible solutions.

Prof. Grimes by the Podium chairing the Panel session -Making International Engagement Work for Africa

Furthermore, SIN Officers interacted with Robin at the Newton Fund Reception at the residence on Wednesday December 7, 2016 along with other stakeholders invited to grace the occasion We also had an opportunity to have lunch with Robin, where Victoria, the new Newton Officer based in Pretoria, joined us. Here, we were able to draw some more nuggets of wisdom on how to excel at our work as new SIN and Newton Officers. One of the take aways was the need to continously tell stories of what we are doing at Post and to share information and experiences across the SIN network.

On the opening day of the conference, Prof Grimes chaired a high level panel discussion on ‘Making International Engagement Work for Africa’ The discussion aimed to challenge the current status quo and explore how to improve partnerships so that they really work for Africa. The session brought together a strong panel drawn from South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria. This was a very interactive session with the panellists sharing their diverse views and opening the discussion to the room for real dialogue. On a lighter note, Prof. Grimes chaired the session well by adding humour making it more interesting to follow and understand the different science commentators views while chipping in his own knowledge and thoughts.

There was never a dull moment at the Science Forum, we enjoyed manning our exhibition stand as it was exciting conversing with various stakeholders and researchers keen to know more about the Science and Innovation Network and the Newton fund as well as the Chevening Scholarships. The model of the Bloodhound Super Sonic Car (SSC) at the stand was a real ice breaker as participants wanted to have a glimpse of it and take photos. The Bloodhound SSC is built to break the current world land-speed record and travel at more than 1,000 miles an hour. The high speed testing is scheduled to take place at the Hakskeen Pan, Northern Cape, South Africa in Autumn 2017. The SIN team in South Africa have been working closely with the UK Bloodhound SSC team to boost attention and UK/SA links with this supersonic land vehicle that will hopefully achieve a new world land speed record.

Seated SIN Kenya and Driver Tandi, standing SIN Nigeria, Newton Officer SA and Prof. Grimes during Lunch

In addition, the three SIN officers met with some local lecturers and researchers some of whom made presentations at the Forum and they had been in contact with.
Finally, SIN Officers would love to visit South Africa again as the team, environment and infrastructure is great.

Written by Serah Nderitu, Richard Atkinson and Bisola Dawon, UK Science and Innovation Officers (Nairobi, Kenya; Cape Town, South Africa; and Lagos, Nigeria) Serah.Nderitu@fco.gov.uk; Richard.Atkinson@fco.gov.uk; Bisola.Dawon@fco.gov.uk