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17 June 2025 | Story Tshepo Tsotetsi | Photo Supplied
Dr Herkulaas Combrink
Dr Herkulaas Combrink is representing UFS in a new international research project that aims to improve how evidence is used in public health policymaking.

Dr Herkulaas Combrink, a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences (EMS) at the University of the Free State (UFS), is representing the university in a new international research project that aims to improve how evidence is used in public health policymaking.

Dr Combrink, who is also a co-director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Digital Futures (ICDF), has been selected as one of the principal investigators in a newly funded project supported by the UK’s International Science Partnerships Fund under the Evidence-Informed Policymaking Programme. Running from April 2025 to March 2026, the project – titled Integrating Evidence for Contextualised Public Health Policy: Lessons from South Africa – explores how different types of evidence can be used more effectively in shaping public health policy. The international collaboration includes researchers from the Centre for Philosophy of Epidemiology, Medicine and Public Health, which is a collaboration between Durham University and the University of Johannesburg; as well as Durham’s Centre for Humanities Engaging Science and Society.

 

From the Free State to global impact

For Dr Combrink, being part of this collaboration highlights the important work being done in the faculty and ICDF that is reaching beyond borders. 

“It’s important to showcase the impact we are making from the Free State that leads to global outcomes,” he said.

The project aims to evaluate an evidence mapping framework to determine how model-based projections and social listening reports can be more effectively integrated and contextualised for policymaking.

“These are two very different data types,” he explained. “The value lies in demonstrating how to apply the framework to different contexts for evidence-based mapping.”

Dr Combrink brings extensive expertise to the team, having worked on both disease modelling and risk communication during South Africa’s COVID-19 response. He was involved in national and provincial social listening initiatives, and used high-frequency social media data to track the spread of misinformation, often referred to as the ‘infodemic.’ 

“We’ve built up enough data within ICDF and EMS to support this study,” he noted.

The goal is not just theoretical. A key outcome of the project is engaging directly with policymakers to refine modelling and risk communication strategies for future pandemics. 

“This will help us to engage with the various departments of health to assist with improving modelling and risk communication work for better social behavioural change,” he explained.

According to Prof Brownhilder Neneh, Vice-Dean for Research and Internationalisation in the EMS faculty, the project reflects the faculty’s growing global presence. 

“Dr Combrink’s participation is a testament to the calibre of scholarship within the faculty,” she said. “It positions EMS as a key contributor to shaping policy and practice with societal impact.”

She added that the collaboration aligns well with the faculty’s vision for global partnerships that are rooted in local relevance.

“By focusing on contextualised evidence for policymaking, this project reflects our commitment to relevance, engagement and global partnership,” she said.

 

What comes next

Over the project’s 12-month timeline, the team will deliver:

• a case study analysis of modelling and social listening during South Africa’s COVID-19 response;
• an extended evidence mapping framework tailored to diverse evidence types;
• policy briefs and practical tools for public health practitioners; and
• a hybrid international workshop in late 2025 bringing together researchers, policymakers and health professionals to test and refine these outputs.

News Archive

UFS hosts final ANC Centenary Seminar for 2011
2011-11-28

 

Prof. Benjamin Turok speaking about the Evolution of Economic Policy Thinking.
Photo: Henco Myburgh

The African National Congress (ANC) government is faced with the dilemma of an inherited distorted economy. Subsequently South Africa has the most unequal society in the world. That is according to Prof. Benjamin Turok, head of Political Education for the ANC in Parliament. Prof. Turok spoke at an ANC Centenary Dialogue at the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS) on 23 November 2011.

 
Delivering the last lecture of the year in a series of dialogues about the ANC, Prof. Turok said it was hard to swallow that after 100 years there is still inequality. This for a party whose essence is the notion of sharing, as set out in the Freedom Charter.  Prof. Turok told the audience in a packed Odeion Theatre that the ANC Centenary provided a moment of reflection. “If we neglect the poor and uneducated and do not interfere and direct investment, we will always have inequality.”
 
Talking about youth unemployment, Prof. Turok said that no society can live in peace if young people are not employed. He said that he welcomed the energy the ANC Youth League has put in economic policy, but would like to see a youth league economic policy that is scientific.
 
The ANC Centenary Dialogue series has been hosted by the Centre for Africa Studies and will continue on 15 February 2012.

 

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