SANORD is delighted to announce the appointment of Mr Umesh Bawa as Director of International Relations Office & SANORD Central Office. His appointment is effective from 1 November 2017. 

Mr Bawa, who is currently a Senior Psychology lecturer at UWC, will be responsible for raising the university's international profile and stature and forming relations with overseas universities and strategetic partners. His role will also include the development and strengthening of international funding for research and expanding student experiences in order to prepare them to participate in the global knowledge economy. 

Mr Bawa, through his commitments to and memberships of various regional and international organisations, has extensive experience in forging and maintaining mutually beneficial international relationships. While lecturing in the psychology department, he initiated university collaborations between UWC and the Universities of Bergen and the Bergen Consortium of Substance Abuse Clinics, resulting in a scholarly exchange and an ongoing research collaboration.

SANORD Board is pleased to announce the awarded Theme Group Projects for seed funding for 2017. Read more

The SANORD Board is pleased to announce the successful candidates for Brian O’ Connell Scholarship Programme 2017. Read more .

SANORD is happy to announce the 2018 New Call for Applications for Student Interns at the Central office starting anytime from February - December 2018. The application deadline was 17 November 2017. For more details, click here .

The Nordic NordBioMedNet, a collaborative network in the field of Biomedicine, has received over €350,000 in Strategic Partnerships Erasmus+ funding from the European Union. With the funding, the network is building an Open Educational Resource – OER biomedical platform that is open for all. Read More

The use of caesarean sections has shot through the roof at Muhimbili National Hospital in Tanzania, increasing the risk of complications. Researchers have developed a method to improve maternity care in close cooperation between Uppsala and Dar es Salaam. Read More.

Vice-Chancellor Eva Wiberg has now finalised the University of Gothenburg’s new management team. Current Head of Division Anna Lindholm will take over as university Director. Göran Landberg, Director of the Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine, will serve as new Deputy Vice-chancellor responsible for issues regarding research. Fredrika Lagergren, head of the Department of Applied Information Technology, has been appointed Deputy Vice-chancellor responsible for issues regarding outreach and cooperation, a newly established post at the University. They will enter their new positions at the turn of the year. Read more .

The University Board has appointed Professor Keijo Hämäläinen as the Rector of the University of Jyväskylä for the five-year term 1 August 2017–31 July 2022. A delightfully large group of high-level applicants were interested in the position. The University Board is very happy to get the best possible Rector for the University. The University’s management will be in good hands also in the future, says Chair of the University Board Anne-Christine Ritschkoff. Read more.

Looking for partners or expertise from Finland? Check out UniPID’s FinCEAL Infobank, a multidisciplinary database of research and capacity building projects carried out by the Finnish research community on/in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. The purpose of the Infobank is to facilitate knowledge exchange, communication and cooperation opportunities between researchers focusing on these regions in Finland. Link to Infobank here .

This year marks the ten-year hallmark of the University of Lusaka. In the last 10 years, the University has grown from 71 students in 2007 to over 6,000 in 2016. Established in 2007, it was a visionary idea pioneered by the local entrepreneurs. The founders of the University saw an opportunity to contribute to the growing tertiary education sector. They took the challenge of building a world-class university that would be able to compete at international level by offering programmes that meet the needs of society and industry with the emphasis on delivering quality education. After a decade of dedicated work, the University is growing stronger and striving for higher heights. It’s the university's vision to transform the nation in a positive way using education as a tool to uplift the lives of people.

First Lady, Esther Lungu, with Minister of Community Development and Social Services, Hon. Emerine Kabanshi, PM (middle), Germany Ambassador to Zambia, His Excellency, Mr Achim Burkart (right), UNZA Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Luke Mumba (2nd left) and Dean, School of Education, Dr Oswell Chakulimba (left) singing the national anthem during the commissioning of the Special Needs Education Resource Centre today, Thursday, 19th October 2017. Read More .

The University of KwaZulu-Natal congratulated its top performing researchers for 2016. Of the 30 researchers honoured, 16 are based in the College of Agriculture, Engineering and Science, where they are conducting important research in the Schools of Chemistry and Physics (SCP), Life Sciences (SLS), Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science (SMSCS), Engineering, and Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences (SAEES). Read more .

The Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources Sciences won first prize in the category Research and Development at Namibia’s prestigious Sustainable Development Awards. In addition to this, Prof Habauka Kwaambwa, the Head of the Natural and Applied Sciences Department in the Faculty of Health and Applied Sciences, secured the second spot. Read more .

The Durban University of Technology Department of Analytical Chemistry and the South African Chemical Institute (SACI) held a research and development information session on 20 October 2017. The regional event which is held annually took place at the university’s Hotel School conference centre. This event sees academics and students from different universities in Kwa-Zulu Natal converging in one area to discuss employment, funding, research and developments within the field of chemistry. Read more .

The Durban University of Technology Department of Analytical Chemistry students’ scooped top awards at the 2017 South African Chemical Institute (SACI) Bachelor of Technology (Btech)/Honours symposium held at Ritson Campus Hotel School on 20 October 2017. The symposium was geared towards postgraduate students in the field of chemistry and included insightful discussions from experts and academics. Selected students from DUT Department of Analytical Chemistry together with their counterparts in the region and at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, University of Zululand, Mangosuthu University of Technology convened in one venue discussing all matters related to chemistry. Read more .

Rhodes University Business School MBA student, Godfrey Nyamande, has been awarded the Association of MBAs 50th anniversary scholarship, the only award of its kind for the whole of the African continent. Awarded to one recipient from each of the six continents, the AMBA Scholarship was launched in London this year in celebration of their 50th anniversary with the theme ‘The Year of the MBA’. The six scholarships will contribute $50,000 (R680 000) worth of funding in a bid to champion sustainable and responsible management. Read more .

USN has been awarded two applications in the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships. Both projects have a duration of three years and USN coordinates both projects. Read more .

“Students from the LGBTIQ community often face prejudice and marginalisation - and as a result some try to hide their true selves in order to fit in amongst their peers. But people need to see the authentic you and not a portrait of an ideal self.” So says Ndimphiwe Bontiya, a co-programme leader for LoudEnuf, a division of the University of the Western Cape’s Gender Equity Unit (GEU) that focuses on sexual orientation and gender identity, and co-leader along with Philip Ntlaba of UWC’s 2017 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer (LGBTIQ) march in October. Read more .

In an attempt to meet the demands of the ever-increasing use of rechargeable battery technology, the University of Limpopo (UL) launched South Africa’s first pilot plant in manganese beneficiation in Mbombela, Mpumalanga. The R30 million Lithium Ion Battery (LIB) Precursor Pilot Plant is a strategic initiative by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) that could give the country a competitive edge in the global energy storage sector. Read more .

This call is aimed at budding researchers with creative and open minds towards the challenges of applied research. We offer a unique learning opportunity in a multidisciplinary research project on the isle of Gozo, Malta. Expeditions and the University of Leuven offer a 20.000 euro scholarship fund to cover part or all of the tuition fee for the 2018 Malta Summer School. Scholarships are granted on a competitive basis, based on a research proposal. Read more .

NTNU’s interest in visiting UWC is to discuss possible co-operation. In 2016, they postponed the visit, due to the situation many universities experienced.  In addition to Social Work, it is Computer science that is relevant, and also some fields/disciplines at the Faculty of Community and Health Sciences. This is mainly areas as bio-kinetics, sports and exercise science, but may also be other areas relevant to their BA and MA in Movement Science. 

Frequent sauna bathing reduces the risk of elevated blood pressure, according to an extensive follow-up population-based study carried out at the University of Eastern Finland. The risk of developing elevated blood pressure was nearly 50% lower among men who had a sauna 4–7 times a week compared to men who had a sauna only once a week. These findings were published recently in the American Journal of Hypertension. Read More

Researchers have detected a merger of two neutron stars with telescopes as a light visible to the human eye. The discovery is historic as this is the first time that scientists were able to observe electromagnetic radiation and gravitational waves from the same event. Furthermore, this was the first, confirmed the observation of a merger of two neutron stars. Read More .

At the Uppsala Health Summit Tackling Infectious Disease Threats 10–11 October, experts and decision-makers from ministries, academia, companies and voluntary organisations met to discuss how jointly to reduce the risk of severe outbreaks. Read More .

A global scientific project has finally observed the collision of neutron stars, directly, for the first time, with great significance for cracking enduring challenges in astrophysics around gravitational waves and gamma ray bursts. Prof Soebur Razzaque from the University of Johannesburg's (UJ) contributed theoretical modelling of the expected behavior of gamma rays when neutron stars collide to the discovery. Read more .

In early March, a new project was launched at the University West, in collaboration with industrial partners and the KK-foundation. The focus is on additive manufacturing and creating cutting edge knowledge about high temperature materials. Read more.

Steffen Thrane Vindt has come up with an invention that can help ensure a steady green energy supply and improve the service life of electric cars and fuel cell vehicles. Initial advice and professional sparring convinced the chemical engineer that his research work could be combined with the dream of owning a business. Read more.

SANORD is pleased to announce that the University of Jyväskylä will be our proud host for the next year's SANORD international conference. Click here for details.