THE POSGRADUATE UNIT EQUIPS POSTGRADUATES ON WRITING FUNDING PROPOSALS

The Walter Sisulu University Postgraduate Office, in partnership with the European Commission (EC) and the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI), hosted a proposal writing workshop on, 20 June 2023.

The objective of the workshop was to create an enabling environment for inclusive access by the South African National System of Innovation (NSI) to aid access to opportunities in the South Africa-European Union DSI Relations.

WSU Postgraduate Unit Director, Prof Nontyatyambo Dastile, said:   “We are trying to shape the landscape of how postgraduate studies are done at our university. We try to do this by ensuring that our emerging researchers conduct research that tries to humanise the Eastern Cape and the globe at large.”

Dastile further said the postgraduate unit is trying to motivate postgraduates to conduct research that tries to reclaim African humanity because without it they will not be recognized globally.

“We hope that in terms of the scope and reach of our research, we will be able to conduct research that contributes to the world and ensure that there are no more layers of poverty in our Eastern Cape,” said Dastile.

Dastile said that the Eastern Cape is known as a province that is poor, but they want to make sure that the brains in the province contribute to changing that narrative.

“What makes us proud is that as we develop the space of postgraduate studies at WSU, we are empowered by all the brains that have come before us who are now our ancestors. Together we function and we continue to come up with innovative ways of conducting research and those ways will be humanistic and that will speak to the multiple layers of trauma that the Eastern Cape has been through,” added Dastile.

The Strategic Partnership directorate responsible for managing the SA-EU DSI cooperation, addressed the need to enable capacity building within Historically Disadvantaged Institutions (HDIs).

DSI  Strategic Partnerships assistant director, Ntombi Mchuba, said: “As the DSI we do want to extend an invite to WSU researchers to apply for the research  funding we have at our disposal.. You just need to communicate with our team so that we can support you to get funded. We are going to come back to WSU to engage you about our new programme called COST which is good for postgraduates.”

The workshop allowed researchers and innovators the chance to learn more about available opportunities within the SA-EU DSI cooperation, how to access them and how to write winning proposals.

This included a practical workshop that took researchers through a step-by-step process of applying for funding at Euraxess, a funding portal by the European Commission.

By Anita Roji