The NSTF Share ‘n Dare Programme

The impact of the NSTF Awards goes far beyond the ‘glitzy’ Awards ceremony. NSTF Awards Winners are ‘ambassadors’ for their fields of expertise for the whole year. The NSTF, in collaboration with the Medical Research Council’s Web & Media Technologies Platform, arranges opportunities for the NSTF Award Winners to share their knowledge and experience with young people, to be role models, and thus to motivate, or dare, the youth to take up studies and careers in the sciences and engineering. There are no better role models than these top scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and science communicators!

The opportunities for sharing and daring include:

• Talk shows broadcast on Community radio stations
• Interviews broadcast on Campus radio stations
• Special lectures at university campuses
• Talks and interaction at university orientation events for new students

Where possible, these are made available on the NSTF Awards web portal and can be accessed by interested parties and for educational purposes by educators and career counsellors.

During the past year, activities took place at the universities of Pretoria, Limpopo, Stellenbosch and both the Bloemfontein and Qwa Qwa campuses of Free State University. Awareness of science, engineering and technology was created through community talk shows on Radio Tygerberg, Radio Rippel, Radio Midrand, Alexandra FM, Radio Rosestad, Radio Atlantis, and Voice of the Cape, with a combined potential listenership of 631 000.

Local radio stations reach a wide range of listeners of all socio-economic classes and interviews and interaction with the audience can take place in a language that the local listeners are comfortable with. Sometimes these interactions lead to interviews with NSTF Award Winners on national radio stations, giving even more people the benefit of their knowledge.

The NSTF aims to extend the Share ‘n Dare programme to accommodate more rural communities, more languages, and more universities of technology.

Look out for an NSTF Award Winner appearing in your area or on your airwaves! Make use of the opportunity to listen to them and ask questions to find out why they were crowned with the prestigious title of NSTF Award Winner.

If your radio station or tertiary institution is interested in participating in this exciting venture, please contact the NSTF office at nstf@scientia.co.za or 012 8413987. If you wish to help to help us to continue to make the Share ‘n Dare programme possible through sponsorship, please contact us.

Last updated: 5 May 2010