Building international links with South Africa – Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University visit

From 8 – 9 June 2016, the University hosted a delegation from new partners, the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), South Africa.

Following a successful bid to the Newton fund for a 3-year PhD partnering programme in the Marine and Maritime area (which will fund the exchange of doctoral students and staff over the next 3 years), the purpose of the visit was to build upon this initial success and further develop the fledgling partnership. Currently, the programme’s first exchange students are in the final stages of planning their project work in areas of marine species migration and the impact of invasive species on ecosystems and aquaculture.

The PhD partnership will build a new, sustained and strategically significant collaboration between both organisations in the Marine and Maritime realm. Through its activity, the partnership will enable the exchange of knowledge in complementary areas of research and ultimately produce a stronger, more interconnected research base on globally important topics.

Partnership activity will initially focus on the Marine and Maritime realm, and we encourage staff and students working in this area to get involved and make the most of this opportunity by contacting the Graduate School at the National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOCS).

An emerging centre of excellence in South Africa, NMMU hosts the South African Centre for High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy. Whilst visiting the University, our guests were excited to tour the Optoelectronics Research Centre Facilities with Sir David Payne.

Photo: From left: Rachel Mills, Dean of FNES; Andrew Leitch, Deputy Vice-Chancellor; Tim Elliott, PVC Research and Enterprise; Derrick Swartz, Vice-Chancellor and Principal; Mike Roberts, Joint NMMU-NOC Newton Funded Research Chair in Ocean Science; Heather Nel, Director of Institutional Planning.