SANORD welcomed visitors from Bergen University College who visited the central office to enquire more about SANORD activities and how to fully utilize their membership. 

From left: Leolyn Jackson, Cathrine Palmstrøm (HiB), Maureen Davis, Gry Sjøholt (HiB) and Ove Jan Kvammen (HiB). 

SANORD is pleased to announce the call for application for SANORD Research Theme Groups Seed Funding 2016. Seed funding is made available for Research theme group leaders to organise seminars, conferences and other activities directly related to their North-South multilateral cooperation and building networks. The deadline for the applications is June 30th. Read more: 

CROP (Comparative Research Programme on Poverty) was established with a secretariat in Bergen in 1993 in order to promote social science research that theorises and provides understanding of poverty in a global context.

CROP can now be found on Facebook. The page will be used to distribute information about calls, books and briefs, news from CROP and its network as well as to share relevant information on poverty-related topics. You can find the Facebook page here.

University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) hosted a two day workshop to facilitate the formation of an international collaboration on capacity building and poverty reduction. The purpose was to review and develop plans for a collaborative partnership between UKZN, the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty (CROP), the International Social Science Council (ISSC) hosted by the University of Bergen, and The Council for the Development of Social Science Research (CODESRIA). Read more: 

Poverty and Inequality in Middle Income Countries: Policy Achievements, Political Obstacles 
Edited by Einar Braathen, Julian May, Marianne Ulriksen and Gemma Wright.

The publication offers a reassessment of the viable ways of addressing poverty across the globe and provides researchers with new tools to address poverty. It also shows how a radical switch from aid to redistribution-based social policies is needed to combat new forms of global poverty. Read more: 

The International Network for Higher Education in Africa (INHEA) has published the African Higher Education Resource Database which intends to be the most comprehensive database resource in the field. At this stage, the database provides complete bibliographic information but the goal is to provide the respective resources themselves within the parameters of copyright regimes. The database is available here: 

Great Zimbabwe University (GZU) held a workshop with Green Innovations Hub which seeks to ignite social change and unlock the potential of young people in contributing to sustainable development through novel ideas around smart energy by turning their ideas into practical solutions. Read more: (page 9) 

The University of Eastern Finland (UEF) was ranked in the highest performance group on nine indicators in the U-Multirank ranking. UEF was ranked in the highest performance group in the numbers of research publications, interdisciplinary publications and international joint publications, among other things. The U-Multirank ranking covers more than 1,300 universities globally. Read more: 

The University of Limpopo (UL) hosted the National Water Week campaign March 14-18 to bring attention to resolving South Africa's drought problem. The event aimed to create awareness about the value of water, the need of sustainable management of the resource and the role water plays in eradicating poverty and under-development in South Africa. Read more:

The live video streaming project of Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) was selected as a finalist at the recent InAVation Awards which recognise innovation in audio-visual system design and implementation of projects in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The project was coordinated by the Student Media Unit. Read more:

The industrial Flow-Viz system, an invention by CPUT and their Swedish partner SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden has been approved for a US patent.  Flow-Viz technology is a highly specialised industrial fluids characterisation system that improves process and quality control within a fluid production line. Read more: 

RUNSAFE, interdisciplinary centre for running research at the Aarhus University (AU) has began a 4-year collaboration with the University of Gothenburg (UG). New insights to the etiology and prevention of running-related injuries are expected from the project which is entitled "Health promotion with focus on physical activity and injury prevention". Read more: 

The UniPID network has launched a project called "Supporting Immigrants in Higher Education (SIMHE)" at University of Jyväskylä. SIMHE acts as a pilot project for a national initiative to reinforce the role of Finnish HEIs in supporting the integration of asylum seekers, refugees and other immigrants. The project strives to streamline the Recognition of Prior Learning of people with various immigrant backgrounds living in Finland. Read more: 

University of Jyväskylä (JYU) has recently launched a project called "Inside Out – Outside In: Building Bridges in Teacher Education through Encounters with Diversity" which aims to tackle the diversity challenge by improving the provision of intercultural competence and understanding in pre- and in-service teacher education. Read more: 

Chancellor College at the University of Malawi (UNIMA) has been in partnership with Support for Service Delivery Integration (SSDI) in a project that supports social and behavioural change in various parts of the country. Part of the work that SSDI committed to assisting included putting up a studio for audio-visual recording at Chanco Radio. Read more: 

Dr Ismail Lagardien has been appointed as the new Dean of Business and Economic Sciences at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU). His doctorate from the University of Wales focused on Global Inequality and the place of neo-classical economics in global public policy making. Read more: 

The ambassador of Namibia in Sweden visited University West (HV) on Namibia's national day. At the moment, HV has three different collaborations with Namibia: Minor Field Studies, Linnaeus-Palme and VFU. About twenty students from the university has travelled to Namibia during the last four years and the collaboration is making it possible for students from Namibia to come to Trollhättan and Sweden. Read more: 

From the left: Nambia's ambassador Morina Muuondjo with the students Married Nelumbu and Petra Tapper.

Writing the Decline: On the struggle for South Africa’s Democracy
Written by Dr Richard Pithouse, Rhodes University

The book is in the form of a collection of newspaper articles written over the past 8 years in South Africa, based mainly on experiences in both Durban and Grahamstown that cover both the decline and criticism of Zuma's era in office, but also cover the stories and experiences of marginalised groups. Read more: 

Anti-racism Network of South Africa (ARNSA) has been launched at the University of Free State (UFS).  The Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice at UFS is partnered in this endeavour by the Mangaung Metro Municipality, the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, the Foundation for Human Rights, the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Churches against Racism in Southern Africa and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. Read more: 

UniPiD participated in a week focusing on EU-Africa collaboration in Science, Technology and Innovation in Addis Abada, Ethiopia. The week started with a CAAST-Net Plus meeting with the Regional Economic Communities, Science Academies and ERAfrica and continued with a meeting of the EU-Africa High-Level Policy Dialogue on STI, a Stakeholder Forum on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture and a meeting between the AUC and EC. Read more: 

The 'Intra-Africa Academic Mobility Scheme' offering support to African HEIs for the organisation and implementation of mobility and staff within the continent is calling for proposals. In particular, the programme funds partnerships between HEIs from different countries in Africa. The deadline for the proposals is June 15th. Read more: 

Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) is calling for applications for early career research fellowship programme Iso Lomso aimed at African scholars. The aim of the program is to guide and support scholars into becoming established scholars in their fields. The deadline for the call is May 25th 2016. Read more: 

Researchers at Lund University (LU) together with colleagues in France and Italy have studied skin pigment and its components and shown that skin pigments convert UV radiation into heat through a speedy chemical reaction that blasts protons from the pigment molecules, therefore protecting the body from hazardous UV radiation. Read more: 

Ethical leadership exists when a leader does good for as many people as possible. Nordic  Africa Institute (NAI) guest researcher Barney Pityana examines the concept, and the lack of it, in South African context. In his research, he is seeking to uncover a new theory of ethical leadership applicable to South Africa as well as considering the behaviour of the electorate. Read more: 

In a new research project at Gothenburg Research Institute at the University of Gothenburg (UG) focuses on urbanisation in the global south and asks what does compact and sustainable mean in the context of informal settlements in developing countries. The purpose is to contribute to a more concrete understanding of what a sustainable city actually consists of, especially in regards to cities in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. Read more:

The research report titled 'Values as a Blueprint for Value Creation' has been released. It is the culmination of a project aiming to advance the Albert Luthuli Centre for Responsible Leadership's (ALCRL) work in the field of integrated reporting. The outcomes of the project was to grow qualifications in integrated reporting, promote integrated reporting to international stakeholders, advance rigorous academic research and unlock the potential collaboration between the UK and South Africa. Read more: 

Researchers at the University of Iceland (HI) have studied geothermally-heated streams in Iceland to see how well brown trout copes at higher temperatures and found the populations increased in size at higher stream temperatures. The research team included scientists from Iceland, Norway, Denmark, South Africa, the United Kingdom and France. Read more: