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SA: Naledi Pandor: Address by the Minister of Science and Technology, at the Launch of Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, iThemba LABS, Johanneburg (07/07/2014)

Minister Naledi Pandor
Photo by Duane Daws
Minister Naledi Pandor

7th July 2014

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Distinguished guests;

Ladies and gentlemen:

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As you might be aware, this year marks the 10th anniversary of the transfer of the Schonland Research Centre to iThemba LABS. At that time we had high hopes that the centre would not only put us in a position to produce more and more cutting-edge research in critical areas, but also become a valuable research and knowledge-producing facility, for both domestic and international users. I must say it has not disappointed us.

We hope that the facility being launched today at iThemba LABS, the newly completed Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility, will have a similarly impressive output. Allow me to thank the National Research Foundation for its assistance in funding this initiative, as well as the management of the University of the Witwatersrand for generously agreeing to host this facility.

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Through my department's Ten-Year Innovation Plan, among other strategies, we have set a number of ambitious goals for our national system of innovation and have designated certain areas in which we wish to become world leaders.  All this is aimed at turning South Africa into vibrant knowledge-based economy, which will be driven by the quality of human capital we develop, the quality of our knowledge generation and exploitation, our research and development infrastructure and the enablers we have put in place to bridge the chasm between research results and socio-economic outcomes.

 

In this context, we see the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility as critical in helping us develop world-class research and development in areas such as – • global and regional climate change; • the characterisation of regional groundwater systems; • palaeoanthropology, archaeology, history and preservation technology; • Earth sciences and geosciences; • accelerator mass spectrometry in biomedical dosimetry; • qualifying therapeutic drugs.

 

These areas fit well with some of the pillars of our Ten-Year Innovation Plan, such the bioeconomy, global change science, and human and social dynamics for development.

 

This facility is going to be particularly valuable for the purposes of human capital development, and we see it being used to train scientists and students from a variety of scientific disciplines in the use and application of rare isotopes. The skills and scientific approaches they learn will be unprecedented in many respects.

 

The specific focus of the facility's human capital development work will be on – • training South Africans and scientists from neighbouring countries and the rest of the world in subatomic research activities; • generating specific skills in everything from the technical aspects of the accelerator operation for high precision measurements (in radio carbon dating, for instance), sample procurement and preparation techniques for the sample to be analysed, real-time system control and data acquisition, state-of-the-art particle detection systems, and sophisticated data analysis and interpretation systems; • conducting research that is relevant to South Africa, and will contribute to the improvement of people's quality of life; • contributing to the knowledge economy and South Africa’s economic competitiveness; • driving demographic transformation of the science base to achieve full participation of the majority population; • ensuring that the universities and other sectors of higher education are self-sustaining in academic and other staff in order to produce a stream of highly skilled doctoral graduates; • producing a cohort of young South Africans with the skills and self-belief to achieve the aspirations of their country and the continent; • significantly strengthening research and innovation in the subatomic fields in order to rapidly grow South Africa's reputation for excellence in science and technology.

 

You may be interested to know that the Department of Science and Technology is working on several interventions to improve research and development infrastructure, which is vital for scientific knowledge generation and exploitation, as well as for providing advanced training to the next generations of researchers, scientists, students and technicians.

 

One of these is the National Equipment Programme, implemented through the National Research Foundation, which supports the acquisition and refurbishment of research infrastructure in order to – • enable internationally competitive research to be conducted in South Africa; • expand the institutional capacity for research, innovation and training at public universities and research institutions; • promote national, regional and global research collaborations in line with national research priorities.

 

Since 2005 over 300 items of state-of-the-art research equipment have been acquired and placed at various South African universities.  This research equipment has allowed for the establishment of local and international collaborations, and the graduation of a large number of postgraduate students. Research carried out using the equipment has resulted in about 3 000 scientific publications (including articles in recognised journals, books, book chapters, and conference papers) over the same period.

 

The Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility is only one of the facilities supported through the National Equipment Programme, but we have no doubt that it will go far in enabling us to realise some of our strategic goals as a system, strengthening our efforts to build a vibrant knowledge economy in South Africa, and achieve the vision articulated in our National Development Plan.

 

I am therefore pleased to declare the Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility open.

 

Thank you.

 

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