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Frater Celebration Day Hybrid Conference to be held on 5 May 2022

04 May 2022

Robert Frater — The research efforts in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in the Faculty of Health Sciences, UFS, have come a long way since the establishment of a homograft bank, animal research, and laboratory-based research on cardioplegia by Prof Hannes Meyer in the 1980s

Several world-class scientists and academics in the field of cardiovascular research will converge at the University of the Free State (UFS) on Thursday (5 May 2022) for a one-day hybrid conference to explore and celebrate the massive strides made in this critical field at the UFS Robert W M Frater Cardiovascular Research Centre.

The research efforts in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in the Faculty of Health Sciences, UFS, have come a long way since the establishment of a homograft bank, animal research, and laboratory-based research on cardioplegia by Prof Hannes Meyer in the 1980s. Renewed interest in 2004 under the leadership of Prof Francis E Smit culminated in the establishment of the Robert W M Frater Cardiovascular Research Centre (the Frater Centre) in 2015. This was made possible through donor funding, especially by Dr Robert W M Frater MD PhD (honoris causa, UFS), a South Africa-born New York-based cardiothoracic surgeon, researcher and innovator as infrastructure and project support by the UFS.

The vision of the Frater Centre is to be a leading cardiovascular research institution in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. It provides an interdisciplinary training and research platform for scientists and clinicians from different backgrounds to develop as researchers and collaborators in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery and related domains. Activities are focused on the development of African solutions for African problems.

Three main divisions
The Frater Celebration day will highlight the achievements made thus far in a hybrid format in four sessions, which can be attended on a virtual platform or in person. The centre’s local and international collaborators will participate in the programme, and Dr Ronnie van der Merwe, the Group CEO of Mediclinic International, is the guest of honour.

The Frater Centre consists of three main divisions, all of which will form part of the focus of the conference programme in various forms during the day:

1) The Clinical Research Division addresses cardiovascular disease on a broad front, ranging from population and prevalence studies, healthcare solutions and clinical outcomes studies in a specific South African and African context.

2) The Research, Development and Commercialisation division is divided into Tissue Engineering and Cell Biology, Tissue Banking and Large Animal studies, and bioengineering to develop African solutions and technology within these domains.

3) The Simulation Programme provides an integrated interdisciplinary platform for the education and training of individuals and teams in cardiovascular, thoracic, anaesthetic, perfusion technology and related nursing fields in a state-of-the-art simulation unit. The research centre is developing a unique and leading programme and systems in this field. This endeavour is also developing IT models for training, evaluation and research.

The Frater Centre and 4IR
The Centre is firmly established in the fourth industrial revolution. It is new technology-driven, creating new IT platforms and boasts extensive interdisciplinary projects at the biomedical sector's local, national, and international levels.

It is essential to note that the extensive and successful collaboration within the Frater Centre not only exists on institutional level but also nationally and internationally. These collaborators assist, mentor, direct and contribute to the research activities.

Click: Link to the event
Event programme

News Archive

Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice: cultivating humanity

2014-12-15

Directors of university centres focusing on Social Justice, Diversity and Transformation met at the UFS to establish the Directors' Forum. The forum discussed the state of higher education transformation in South Africa The forum consists of (from the left) Mr Allan Zinn from the The Centre for the Advancement of Non-racialism and Democracy at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Profs Melissa Steyn from Wits University's Centre for Diversity Studies, Andre Keet Director of the The Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State; Rozena Maart from The Centre for Critical Research on Race and Identity at the University of KwaZulu Natal and Mr JC van der Merwe, researcher at the UFS Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice
Photo: O'Ryan Heideman

The Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice at the University of the Free State (UFS) provides a critical space that brings different voices, ideas and practices together to advance the Human and Academic Projects of the university. Students, staff and community members meet here to find ways to engage with diverse views, realities and aspirations.

“We cultivate humanity so that reconciliation and social justice can be expressed in our everyday life and we work against disrespect and inequalities on our campuses and in our society,” says Prof André Keet, Director of the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice.

“Through our various critical conversations, public lectures, seminars and colloquia, fresh understandings and ideas come to the fore and new inclusive ways of doing life in a local and global multicultural society are invented,” Prof Keet says. A host of international experts formed part of the institute’s events during 2014.

Dr Charles Alexander (University of California), Prof Halleh Ghorashi (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Prof Alex Hinton (Rutgers University), Dr Shirley Anne Tate (University of Leeds) and Prof Susan Spearey (Brock University) were but a few of the international experts contributing to the work of the institute during the last year.

“We play key roles in transformation debates within Higher Education South Africa (HESA) and ministerial processes,” Prof Keet says. “We promote, protect and monitor human rights across our campuses and are frequently requested to support the work of the South African Human Rights Commission and to provide advice to other state agencies.”

The institute prides itself on their leading-edge research on social cohesion, reconciliation, human rights and higher education transformation. In addition, staff of the institute teaches, on invitation, at various faculties, as well as at other national and international universities.

To further bolster their impact, the institute is launching three master’s and doctoral postgraduate programmes in January 2015.

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