Research

South Africa

Because of its excellent university system and its large number of research institutions and commercial companies with research departments, South Africa is seen as the "gateway to Africa" when it comes to research and technology. It is also one of Germany's most important cooperation partners on the African continent. Based on their long-standing science and technology cooperation, Germany and South Africa have initiated a policy dialogue on future questions of ecological sustainability and the related demand for science, technology and innovation.

Based on a Joint Declaration of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the South African Department of Science and Technology (DST), which was signed by Federal Minister Prof. Dr. Annette Schavan and Minister Mosibudi Mangena in February 2008, the first conference of the German-South African sustainability research dialogue took place in Bonn, Germany in June 2008.

The priority topics of science for sustainability cooperation between South Africa and Germany are:

  • strengthen innovation systems for sustainability
  • support R&D in the environmental goods and services sector (e.g. land and water resource management, environmental technologies, climate)
  • promoting sustainable energy systems.
  • Research

    Conferences

    Bilateral conferences on "Science for Sustainability" constitute the heart of the South African-German policy dialogue. The first conference was successfully hosted at the German Development Institute in Bonn, Germany, in 2008. The second conference was held in October 2009 in Pretoria, South Africa. DST and BMBF agreed on a series of further conferences focusing on the following themes: "Climate Mitigation and Adaptation", "Future Urban, Rural and Regional Development", and "Natural Resources, Efficiency and Decoupling".
    [more] (URL: http://www.dialogue4s.de/en/730.php)
  • Research 07.02.2011

    Proceedings of the 2nd South African-German Dialogue on Science for Sustainability published

    Proceedings from the 2nd South African-German Dialogue on Science for Sustainability, which took place in October 2009 in Pretoria, have now been published. The brochures are only available in English.
    [more] (URL: http://www.dialogue4s.de/en/672.php)
  • Research

    Picture Gallery South Africa

    Impressions of the two bilateral conferences held so far in the framework of the South African-German Dialogue on Science for Sustainability.
    [more] (URL: http://www.dialogue4s.de/en/704.php)

Green Talents

International competition of the BMBF for Research for Sustainability.




For more information please click here.

Publications

South African-German Research for Sustainability Conference: Proceedings

Download (accessible pdf file)

News

Here you can find the last newsletters of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany Pretoria. It discusses issues relevant to research, science and technology in Germany and South Africa focussing on bilateral cooperation.

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Documents

Projects



EnerKey is a South African - German collaboration, which aims to develop and implement innovative pathways and projects in urban energy supply and use in order to improve the sustainability in the region of Gauteng, South Africa.

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Inkaba ye Africa is a German-South African collaborative Earth Science Initiative, dovetailing next-generation science and technology with a strong training and capacity-building component.

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BIOTA Africa Biodiversity Monitoring Transect Analysis in Africa [more...]

 

Communal Water House Project offers a promising approach to tackle the problem of supplying clean tab water in developing countries. [more...]