SA’s nerds are doing sexy science – and no-one knows about it
While the globe focused on geopolitics at January’s World Economic Forum, over 100 scientists quietly opened the Frontiers Science House – a partnership of 50+ organisations turning scientific breakthroughs into tangible solutions for climate change, health and biodiversity.
The initiative tackles the critical disconnect between laboratory discoveries and real-world benefits. Breakthroughs need funding, collaboration and visibility to reach communities who need them most.
South Africa faces this exact challenge, but most people don’t know about the breakthroughs happening in our own backyard.
More than lab coats and equations
To many South Africans, cutting-edge science sounds like the preserve of socially awkward physicists – Sheldon Cooper debating string theory over comic books. But our research institutions aren’t doing theoretical navel-gazing.
They’re exploring how mathematical modelling influences clinical pharmacology. Creating systems that optimise air foil design for wings. They’re training hundreds of students in computational science using the Centre for High Performance Computing‘s processing power.
They’re building the longest intercontinental ultra-secure quantum satellite link ever achieved – almost 13,000km connecting Stellenbosch University with the University of Science and Technology of China. The first-ever quantum satellite communication link in the Southern Hemisphere happened here.
The power of pooling
These aren’t standalone one-hit wonders. They’re made possible by pooling resources through institutes like the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences or NITheCS.
This research platform embodies what open, collaborative science can achieve. With over 400 associates across all 26 public universities and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), NITheCS pools expertise to tackle national problems rather than leaving researchers isolated.
Funded through the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation via the National Research Foundation, NITheCS is the first of South Africa’s new research institutes, complementing existing work through the South African Research Chairs Initiative and Centres of Excellence.
NITheCS achieves national relevance through its structure: a central hub at Stellenbosch University, with 26 public universities and AIMS divided into five geographical nodes – Gauteng, North, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Free State, and Western Cape, expanding to nine by 2028. Professor Francesco Petruccione, an international leader in quantum computing, leads from the hub.
In addition to enabling local and national collaboration between institutions, the work divides into ten Focus Areas addressing fundamental and applied science, each led by internationally renowned scientists. These areas are:
- Afrocentric solutions for health,
- Climate change and sustainability,
- Complexity in biological systems,
- Finance for sustainable growth,
- Data analytics and artificial intelligence,
- Gravity, astrophysics and cosmology,
- Decoding the universe,
- Quantum technologies,
- Computational modelling of functional materials, and;
- Mathematical structures for foundations and innovations.
Research by NITheCS associates isn’t just captured in articles and news reports but presented weekly through colloquiums recorded and uploaded to NITheCS’ YouTube channel, alongside recordings of mini-schools and seminars sharing the science openly.
Private and public split becoming less relevant
While NITheCS operates predominantly in public universities, private universities have become more research-active recently. What holds them back is that in South Africa, private institutions aren’t granted subsidy for publications.
This means private institutions should target research specifically relevant to industries they serve. This movement is visible in initiatives like the South African Private Higher Education Association.
It’s clear that the future of successful South African research lies in collaboration between different kinds of institutions.
By Japie Greeff, associate professor and research co-ordinator at Belgium Campus iTversity
