NSTF Awards eNewsletter

Today’s research … tomorrow’s innovation

20 August 2010

Call for nominations for 2010/2011 NSTF Awards now open!
We are pleased to declare the Call for Nominations for the prestigious 2010/2011 NSTF Awards officially open! You can now submit nominations for your ideal scientist, researcher, engineer, technologist or innovator. The process consists of two stages:

Stage 1: The first deadline is 12 November 2010 whereby your Notice of Intent to Nominate a candidate should be submitted. The NSTF will acknowledge receipt by email, providing a link to a full nomination document to download and complete in order to submit a formal nomination.

Stage 2: Your nomination document should be submitted no later than 31 January 2011. There will be no extension of this deadline.

The reason for this two-stage process is to make all parties involved, namely the nominee and the NSTF, aware of the nomination and to allow enough time for the completion of the nomination documents before 31 January 2011. Read more about the NSTF Awards and the nomination information where you can access the online Intent to Nominate form.

Changes in NSTF Awards Categories
The format of nominations and criteria will stay basically the same as in previous years, however please note some subtle changes to the categories which are described below:

Awards for research leading to an innovation
(Previously known as ‘Awards for research for innovation by a team/individuals in organisations’)
This category has been reformulated to eliminate confusion and to emphasise the main purpose of these awards. The NSTF appreciates that it is a ‘long walk’ through research to commercialisation of ground-breaking scientific and technological discoveries. We continue to recognise and bring the very best of such efforts to the public’s attention. South Africa should know what excellent R&D is being done inside the laboratories of our country, and the inventiveness of our scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to bring discoveries to market.

Innovation and research are to be recognised irrespective of whether the organisation is a corporate, an SMME, an NGO or a partnership. By allowing for up to three awards in the category, recognition can be given to contributions made through a variety of structures. The innovation should take on the form of an accepted innovation in science, a project or a product, a range of products, a methodology or any other form of applied output completed in the recent past.

Award for communication for outreach and creating awareness of science engineering, technology and innovation (or the SAASTA Science Communication Award)
(previously known as the "Award for Science Communicators for public awareness")
By including "Outreach" in the description the category has been widened.

Awards for individual contributions to science, engineering and technology.
The criteria for the Awards for Individuals and Researchers in four categories will remain unchanged. Except that the name of these awards has changed somewhat, and the Award for ‘activities other than research’ has been reformulated as:

An Award for contribution through management and related SET activities, over the last 5 to 10 years

Awards for individual contributions to science, engineering and technology, encompass:

• Award for Contribution over a lifetime
• Award for Research over the past 5 to 10 years
• Award for contribution through management and related SET activities, over the last 5 to 10 years
• The Kambule Awards, sponsored by the NRF, to Senior Black Researchers for research over the last 5 to 10 years, and
• The Kambule Awards to Distinguished Young Black Researchers over the last 2 to 5 years

The awards for research capacity development, sponsored by ESKOM:
Research capacity development awards are made to individuals (one male and one female) who have made outstanding contributions to training and mentoring black students and researchers.

Activities by NSTF Award winners
Over and above recognising the excellent work done by the innovators in the various fields of Science, Engineering, Technology and Innovation (SETI), the NSTF awards additionally aim to give winners a chance to inspire young scientists, engineers and innovators of the future. In order to achieve this goal, the NSTF Award winners are involved in several activities throughout the year that include campus radio talk shows, special lectures, motivational speeches and community radio interviews. The aim of these activities is to profile the NSTF Award winners as ambassadors of SETI at tertiary institutions across the country. View these activities on the upcoming activities page of the NSTF Awards Web portal.

Recent activities
The following NSTF Award Winners have already been interviewed in-studio by the MRC:

• Mr Reynder
• Professor Coetzee
• Professor Eriksson
• Professor Ramjugernath

On 4 August 2010, Professor Deresh Ramjugernath was also interviewed by Radio Hindvani.

Recently Dr Rapela Maphanga gave a talk at the Tshwane University of Technology, Limpopo Campus on 6 August 2010 and was also involved in the National Science week lectures at Turf on 5 August 2010.

Upcoming activities
On 22 September Professor Makinde will be delivering a special lecture in the Auditorium of the Cape Peninsula University of Technology. You can follow the activities of the 2009/2010 Award Winners on the NSTF Awards Activities Web page.

NSTF invites you to follow new winners’ activities on Twitter and Facebook!
You can now become a follower of the NSTF Award winners’ activities on Twitter! Visit NSTF on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/nstfawards.

Or, you can also join the “Friends of NSTF Awards Winners” group on Facebook and follow their activities on one of the fastest-growing social networks at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=172972793859.

Did you know?
There was serious science involved in the development of “Jabulani”, (“to celebrate” in isiZulu) Adidas’s 2010 World Cup Soccer ball!

Adidas has been developing the official world cup soccer ball for some time now – since Mexico 1970. Regular balls have 32 hexagonal panels. In the 2006 Soccer World Cup, hosted by Germany, this was brought down to 14.

Jabulani only has eight panels. These are made from moulded polyurethane to produce the “roundest ever” ball. These panels are moulded in 3D and thermally bonded. The reduction in panels creates fewer seams and thus a larger striking surface. The lack of seeming also means that the ball doesn’t retain any water. The ball is on the heavy side of the allowed scale, giving it truer flight and better accuracy.

Sources:
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2009-12/science-behind-jubulani-adidass-2010-world-cup-soccer-ball
http://www.doxtop.com/browse/d4dc0cb7/jabulani-story.aspx

The Web & Media Technologies (WMT) of the MRC (Medical Research Council) evaluates the use of a convergence of ICT’s to optimize the process of knowledge transfer.

Last updated: August 2010