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13 August 2024 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied
Maricel-van-Rooyen
Maricél van Rooyen, Project Manager for Research Information Management System (RIMS) and Research Ethics Adviser in the Directorate Research Development (DRD) at the University of the Free State (UFS), is the Programme Coordinator for a first-of-its-kind Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA)/ COP webinar on Environment and Biosafety Research Ethics.

The University of the Free State (UFS) is playing host to a first-of-its-kind webinar on Environment and Biosafety Research Ethics later this month with Maricél van Rooyen, Project Manager for Research Information Management System (RIMS) and Research Ethics Adviser in the Directorate Research Development (DRD), playing a pivotal role.

The webinar, which is part of the Eastern Region Community of Practice (COP), is taking place on 20 August. The target market for this virtual workshop is Biosafety and Environmental Research Ethics Committee (REC) chairpersons and members, professionals including research management professionals, administrators, research compliance managers and advisers, and research directors in Southern Africa and beyond.

Van Rooyen will be the Programme Coordinator for this Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association (SARIMA)/ COP Research Ethics Webinar, while Prof Robert Bragg, chairperson of the UFS Environmental and Biological Research Ethics Committee (EBREC), will give a presentation on the establishment of an EBREC.

The UFS, Stellenbosch University and the University of the Witwatersrand, form part of the COP which is a SARIMA (Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association) initiative to assist and share research ethics questions between institutions to empower research management and ethics compliance. SARIMA assisted with the online hosting and advertising of the webinar.

Purpose of the webinar

“Environment and Biosafety Committees in South Africa are a new idea, and only a few institutions in the country have such a committee. The UFS and the other institutions that will present at the workshop, take a leading role because they have already registered committees in place. We want to share and assist with establishing and operating such committees,” says Van Rooyen.

According to her, the need for the webinar arises from the upsurge of research and innovation in biotechnology and related fields over the past two decades that has led to exciting new discoveries in areas such as the engineering of biological processes, gene editing, stem cell research, CRISPR-Cas9 technology, Synthetic Biology, recombinant DNA, LMOs and GMOs, to mention only a few.

These advances, however, have generated concerns about biosafety, biosecurity and adverse impacts on biodiversity and the environment, leading to the establishment of Research Ethics Committees (RECs) at Higher Education and Research Institutions dedicated to reviewing research with implications for biosafety and the environment.

These EBRECs are in the early stages of their establishment and formalisation in South Africa, and there is much uncertainty about their composition, scope, procedures of decision-making and the principles that should guide their deliberations and assessments.

Leading the charge

The UFS took the lead in South Africa in ensuring international ethical compliance in this extended area of research, by establishing its own Environmental and Biological Research Ethics Committee (EBREC) six years ago. The UFS EBREC is one of only two such ethics committees at a South African university that combines the biosafety committee with environmental and biological research ethics to ensure ethics compliance in these fields.  The initiative started with Van Rooyen and her RIMS EthicsTeam, (Willem Kilian and Amanda Smith). The university is again taking charge with this webinar, which is a first of its kind.  

News Archive

Record number of students to graduate at UFS
2017-06-19

Description: Day 2 Mid-year Graduation Bloemfontein Campus Tags: Day 2 Mid-year Graduation Bloemfontein Campus

Eleven graduation ceremonies will form part of the
mid-year graduation ceremonies at the
University of the Free State.
Photo: Charl Devenish

Livestream of Graduation Ceremonies

Six days, eleven ceremonies, and more than 5 000 degrees. This all forms part of what is the biggest set of graduation ceremonies in the history of the University of the Free State (UFS).

The mid-year graduation ceremonies, taking place from 19 to 26 June 2017 in the Callie Human Centre on the Bloemfontein Campus, will see the most students graduate during a week. A total of 5 258 degrees, which includes 460 master’s and doctoral degrees, will be conferred – including 72 doctoral degrees.

First graduation ceremonies for Prof Petersen
It will also be the first ceremonies that Prof Francis Petersen, new Rector and Vice-Chancellor, attends on the Bloemfontein Campus. Students from all seven faculties, as well as the South Campus, will graduate.

Graduates per faculty are (without master’s and doctoral degrees): Faculty of Education (488), Faculty of Health Sciences (345), Faculty of Theology (29), Faculty of Law (686), Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (1 029), Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (1 044), Faculty of the Humanities (826), and the South Campus (354).

Guest speakers include three judges
Guest speakers for the ceremonies include Dipiloane Phutsisi, Principal and Chief Executive Officer of the Motheo TVET College in the Free State, Dr Susan Vosloo, UFS Council member and founder member of the World Society for Paediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery, and Prof Petersen.

Three judges will also act as speakers. They are Justice Ian van der Merwe, Judge of Appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal and former Chair of the UFS Council, Justice Mahube Molemela, Judge President of the Free State Division of the High Court and Acting Justice of the Supreme Court of South Africa, and Justice Connie Mocumie, Judge of Appeal at the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Graduations ceremonies:

19 June 2017:
09:00: Faculty of Education, except educational qualifications in Open Distance Learning –  South Campus
14:30: Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Theology and Faculty of Law (including the School of Financial Planning Law)

20 June 2017:
09:00: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: All Bachelor’s degrees
14:30: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: All Diplomas and Bachelor Honours degrees

21 June 2017:
09:00: Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences: All Certificates, Diplomas, Bachelor’s degrees and Bachelor Honours degrees, excluding BCom degrees
14:30: Faculty of the Humanities: Social Sciences and Communication Sciences only

22 June 2017:
09:00: Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences: BCom degrees only
14:30: Faculty of the Humanities: All qualifications except Social Sciences and Communication Sciences

23 June 2017:
14:30: Educational qualifications in Open Distance Learning – South Campus

26 June 2017:
09:00: All faculties except the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: Master’s and Doctoral degrees
14:30: Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences: Master’s and Doctoral degrees


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