Latest News Archive

Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items

UFS hosting national Global Change Conference

18 January 2023 | Story Edzani Nephalela | Photo Henco Myburg

Free State MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development, Thembeni Nxangisa, representing Minister Barbara Creecy during the Fifth Global Change Conference at the University of the Free State

From 30 January to 2 February 2023, the University of the Free State is hosting researchers, members of industry and government, businesspeople, funders, and foreign diplomatic missions for the fifth National Global Change Conference.

The purpose of the conference is to share and debate current local research and development initiatives that form part of the Global Change Grand Challenge (GCC5), one of the focus areas developed under the Department of Science and Innovation's Ten-Year Innovation Plan.

The GCC5 supports knowledge generation and technological innovation to enable South Africa, Africa, and the world to respond to global environmental change, including climate change, in an informed and innovative way.

The four-day event is taking place on the Bloemfontein Campus of the UFS under the theme: ‘Research and innovation accelerating transformations to global sustainability’. It is jointly organised by the Department of Science and Innovation, the National Research Foundation, the South African Global Change Science Committee, and the UFS.

Topics on the conference agenda include the state of the southern oceans; the role of physics in power grids; climate and health, water resources, and global crises; and agriculture in a changing environment, among other topics.

For more information on GCC5, kindly click here.

Follow the discussion on UFS social media platforms.

News Archive

UFS outlines research achievements

2011-09-02

At the launch of the 2010 Annual Research Report, were from the left: Mr Robert Kriger, the director for Policy and Strategy at the National Research Foundation (NRF); Prof. Driekie Hay, Vice-Rector: Academic and Prof. Frans Swanepoel, Senior Director: Research Development.
Photo: Stephen Collett

The University of the Free State (UFS) is well on course for delivery on its most important academic duty as a research university. This was the message that came forward at the launch of the 2010 Annual Research Report of the UFS on 30 August 2011.

Speakers at the launch, which included Prof. Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector, as well as Prof. Driekie Hay, Vice-Rector: Academics outlined the key strategies and achievements of the UFS for the 2010 academic year. This included the establishment of a Postgraduate School at the UFS, the first of its kind at a public university in South Africa. Prof. Hay told guests that the aim of the Postgraduate School was to broaden research and deepens scholarship on postgraduate education in the country. She highlighted some initiatives the UFS undertook in 2010 to build and maintain its intellectual capital. Some of these initiatives included the appointment of seven senior professors and recruiting more female and black scholars and academics.

Also speaking at the event was Mr Robert Kriger, the director for Policy and Strategy at the National Research Foundation (NRF). Kriger reflected on the brilliant minds of scholars such as Archie Mafeje, Lewis Nkosi and Dennis Brutus and argued for efforts to increase the country’s research output.

Some highlights of the 2010 Annual Research Report:

The total funding available for research at the UFS increased from approximately R199 million in 2009 to just over R210 million in 2010. A total of R31.8 million was made available from central university funds.
In 2010 the UFS was home to 92 NRF-rated researchers. During 2010, four researchers applied for re-evaluation and of these, two improved their rating, while a further five received a first-time rating.
The Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences continue to be the most prolific producer of publications in accredited journals, while the Faculty of Education has shown a 54% increase in its publication output.
Staff members in the Physics department at the UFS Qwaqwa Campus published 22 papers in international peer-reviewed journals during 2010.
Also at the Qwaqwa Campus: Ms Khethiwe Mtshali,a postgraduate student in the parasitology research unit of the Department of Zoology and Entomology, received a best Honours presenter award at the 1^st Annual Research symposium of the National Zoological Gardens of South Africa.

Back

Economic and Management Sciences

Education

Health Sciences

The Humanities

Law

Natural and Agricultural Sciences

Theology and Religion

Open Distance Learning

Business School

We use cookies to make interactions with our websites and services easy and meaningful. To better understand how they are used, read more about the UFS cookie policy. By continuing to use this site you are giving us your consent to do this.

Accept