inter-institutional COLLABORATION NETWORKS

The scientific endeavour in the 21^st century has become more collaborative, involving partners from different perspectives and sectors, and with complementary skills and expertise. Collaboration is a catalyst for progress, driving innovation, knowledge exchange, and collective growth. It is an important instrument in advancing the mathematical sciences in South Africa, addressing academic and intellectual isolation, and contributing to fundamentally transforming the national knowledge base in these disciplines. Specifically, inter-institutional collaboration that involves local institutions fosters a sense of community and collective effort, enabling the sharing of resources and best practice.

To add to this, collaboration between South African entities and those external to the country opens doors to diverse perspectives and access to a wider pool of expertise. It creates opportunities for leveraging resources to support national priorities and address global 21^st century challenges.

The Institute will facilitate the creation of research training and research collaboration networks. It will endeavour to maintain, support and develop hubs of expertise in well-represented areas of specialisation already existing in the country.

INTERNATIONAL VISITORS AND EXCHANGE PROGRAMME

The postgraduate programmes will be run with an open architecture and will of necessity each year source international experts and leaders in contemporary research areas, which are underrepresented in South Africa. This synergises naturally with both parts of an international visitor’s programme.

In the first instance, this process and infrastructure will be used to bring in further international collaborators to run month-long colloquia, seed research areas, become co supervisors and mentor young PhD graduates.  The Next Generation of African Mathematicians Residency Programme will give young PhDs the opportunity to publish, including publications from their PhD work, and to collaboratively develop medium term research programmes.

POSTGRADUATE SCHOOLS AND WORKSHOPS

At least two types of training programmes aim to provide structured support to PhD students in order to facilitate better throughput and produce doctoral graduates better prepared to pursue research careers in academia, private and public sectors as well as non-governmental organisations:

• Pre-Doctoral Training Workshops

The main objective of the pre-doctoral training workshops is to bring together prospective research students in the mathematical sciences with senior academics both locally and internationally in order to provide them with an opportunity to develop the breadth and depth of knowledge in their chosen (broad) area of research.

An important outcome of this proposed pre-PhD training programme is the creation of a cohort or community of PhD students working in the same area who can support one another during the course of their PhD studies. Such networks can continue beyond doctoral studies and have been recognised as an important platform also for early career researchers.

• Research Networks

One of the primary objectives of the research networks is to provide researchers with exposure to external research networks – researchers, research groups and PhD students pursuing research in their areas of interest, and mobility and networking will be one of the defining characteristics of the research networks. This could take the form of locally hosted events or researchers being provided with the opportunity to spend some time at research institutes or postgraduate schools in mathematical sciences.

The Research Networks will be a mechanism for researchers to appreciate and gain insights on these major developments. It will also serve as a platform to respond to some of the challenges identified in the Review of Mathematical Sciences Research in South Africa (2008).

CONTEMPORARY TRENDS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

IMSA will provide the members of the mathematical and statistical sciences communities a platform for organising events around developing areas of research activity, cutting edge topics of exceptional contemporary interest and potential impact. These events could provide opportunities for researchers to diversify and increase the impact of their research.  This will not only be targeting early career researchers but also established researchers who want to branch into new directions and increase the impact of their research.