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01 November 2021 | Story André Damons
Digital Scholarship Centre DSC
The recently established Digital Scholarship Centre (DSC) at the UFS is playing an important role in contributing to the development of a collaborative research culture at the university.

The recently established Digital Scholarship Centre (DSC) at the University of the Free State (UFS) is playing a pivotal role in contributing to the development of a collaborative research culture at the university – from cross-faculty and international collaboration to support and administrative services for research.

The DSC was established after an investigation by the Library and Information Services (LIS) to determine the need for digital scholarship support in order to help escalate research output and quality and to support the institutional strategic aim of being a research-led university. The investigation clearly revealed that digital scholarship services would have a significant impact on the UFS' strategic purposes.

Cornelle Scheltema-Van Wyk, Manager of the DSC, says the centre is there to help increase research output, research visibility and impact, and ultimately, the reputation of the university as a research-led institution. “And we do this within the digital scholarship environment (which exists because of digital technology, the internet, and open scholarship), providing researchers with support to use digital methods to enhance their work,” says Scheltema-Van Wyk. 

A pilot project for the DSC was run last year by a work group consisting of representatives from LIS, the Directorate of Research Development (DRD), and ICT Services. An acting manager was appointed, and a web presence was created for the DSC. 

Assistance for researchers
It was clear from the investigation that the research community at the university needed help navigating the digital landscape, determining what services and support systems exist, and how to find, access, and use them. The investigation revealed that researchers are looking for
  • a one-stop shop for research support;
  • increased awareness of services at the university;
  • information, guidance, and training for researchers to enable them to discover, request, and use research support services and digital technologies;
  • creating a strong online presence, while also providing a physical hub with equipment that many researchers cannot afford, as well as a ‘haven’ with an ‘inspiring atmosphere’ to do research when offices become too distracting due to administrative tasks and students;
  • assistance with creating and using collaborative online environments for collaborative research projects;
  • assistance with the open science environment, specifically with regard to open access publishing, funding for open access publishing, and open methods in research; and
  • support for research data management, specifically the development of a research data policy and a data repository at the university.

The centre, which has its roots in the digital, open, and networked environment, also helps to maximise the effectiveness of scarce and limited resources by minimising duplication, not only in research practice with the help of research data management, for example, but also at support level with knowledge of the institutional research environment and where resources can be shared. DSC works to maintain awareness of all relevant resources and can assist with connection and coordination. It also provides information, guidance, training, support services for digital scholarship as well as technology and software, consultation, spaces, and referrals to services such as high-performance computing. 

According to Scheltema-Van Wyk, the benefit of digital scholarship services with a main hub to act as coordinator and consolidator is that the hub has a wider view of the research environment at the institution throughout the research cycle. This includes the planning stages of a research project where a researcher needs to acquire equipment, to data collection and analysis in a digital world, to the preservation of research, and publication in a new scholarly communication environment.

The pilot projects

The UFS has a good foundation of capabilities when it comes to existing research support services for digital scholarship and has developed these capabilities over the past ten years. This includes the High-Performance Computing unit in ICT Services, innovation support by the DRD via KovsieInnovation, and digitisation, digital collections infrastructure, electronic publishing, and repository services at LIS. These support services are very successful from a production standpoint, but the success of visibility and engagement with these services at the institution is more varied.

“The pilot projects illustrated the benefits of the DSC, where researchers were able to contact the centre with questions ranging from how to install research software on their computers, the process of acquiring mobile applications for research purposes (the DSC liaised with Finance to create a process), to setting up online academic seminars and getting third-party applications to work with university resources,” says Scheltema-Van Wyk. 

The knowledge gained from these service requests has already provided the DSC with a broader knowledge of the research environment at the university and allowed recommendations for collaboration and the sharing of resources and expertise in the community.

The DSC uses a hub-and-spoke service model. This model includes a strong central node that links to many other resources. Knowledge, expertise, staff, and services are embedded in academic departments, interdisciplinary units (for example, the newly established Interdisciplinary Centre for Digital Futures), libraries and other service points around the university, which are connected and coordinated through this central node.

The advantage of this model is that it allows growth to take place organically. Services and expertise develop where needed, rather than researchers depending on a centralised unit that may lack the resources to meet ever-evolving digital scholarship needs. Distributed knowledge and skills, however, make it difficult to identify where to go for specific services, training, and assistance. The DSC as a central hub combats the confusion this may cause, linking to the various spokes at the institution.

Prof Corli Witthuhn, Vice-Rector: Research and Internationalisation, says the DSC is at the forefront of providing support to our world-leading researchers on the latest developments in the digital research arena. We are committed to continuing our cutting-edge support and novel approaches to developing the UFS as a research-led university.

News Archive

Award-winning architect firm presents the 29th Sophia Gray Memorial Lecture and Exhibition
2017-09-07

  Description: Arch break Tags: Sophia Gray Memorial Lecture and Exhibition, Elphick Proome Architects, South African Institute of Architects

At the Sophia Gray Bursary Fund breakfast, were from the left:
Henry Pretorius, head of the UFS Department of Architecture,
AJ Corbett, and Boipelo Morule, third-year student
in Architecture and Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector
and Vice-Chancellor, 
at the UFS
Photo: Stephen Collett

The laureates of this year’s Sophia Gray Memorial Lecture were George Elphick and Nicholas Proome from the award-winning architecture firm, Elphick Proome Architects (EPA). Over the past 28 years this Durban firm has received 26 awards and its work has been published in 26 magazines.  

From bedroom to boardroom
EPA is involved in major corporate architecture as well as several residential projects. It believes that good design is produced from careful study and research combined with sound technical knowledge and artistic judgement. At the 29th Sophia Gray lecture, presented by the Department of Architecture at the University of the Free State, EPA addressed the Bloemfontein community, stating that architecture was about people, space and light. 

For EPA, architecture is the form of art with the most impact on society. “Ultimately, our architecture needs to be enjoyed and be hard to forget,” it said. 

In its three decades of practice, most of EPA’s built work has been executed in South Africa. It has also completed projects beyond South African borders, including Mozambique, Kenya, Ghana, and France. 

The lecture was followed by the opening of the 29th Sophia Gray Memorial Exhibition at Oliewenhuis Art Museum.

New PhD in Architecture with Design announced
A highlight at this year’s lecture was the announcement by Henry Pretorius, the head of the department, of a new and innovative doctoral programme, the PhD in Architecture with Design. From 2018, students with a MArch (professional) or MArch can enrol for this postgraduate qualification.

“The programme recognises the intelligence and ingenuity of design. Its primary objective is to harvest and study the implicit orientations, operations, and achievements of design, and to enlist creativity in the formation of new knowledge. The degree facilitates analytical reflection, stimulates creative action, and opens new insights into the unique logic of design,” said Pretorius.

“Although design-based research has gained international momentum in recent years, similar research has not been done in South Africa until now.”

Contribution to the Sophia Gray Bursary Fund 
During a breakfast function, the department also announced another initiative, the Sophia Gray Bursary Fund. Prof Francis Petersen, Rector and Vice-Chancellor at the UFS, said that the type of architecture in developing countries was different from places such as New York and other big cities in developed countries. For a transformed profession we need architects from different cultures and demographics in the system. The bursary fund was a fantastic starting point for this to happen. 

The Sophia Gray Bursary Fund initiative is part of a greater call to alumni and friends of the department to be actively involved in the department’s continuous development and future endeavours towards imagination, care, and excellence.
AJ Corbett, founder and director of TCN Architects in East London, made the first contribution towards the fund. 

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