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Research heavyweights join Nzimande's working group

Research heavyweights join Nzimande's working group

Business Mayor23-05-2025
Professor Blade Nzimande, minister of science, technology and innovation.
A 12-person working group will determine the implications of the US withdrawal of funding for key public research and innovation projects in South Africa.
Professor Blade Nzimande, minister of science, technology and innovation, appointed the team this week.
The move follows US president Donald Trump's decision to halt US funding to SA, amid allegations of a 'white genocide' and that Afrikaner farmers are being deliberately targeted and killed.
In February, all US state departments were ordered to suspend aid to SA. The North American nation reportedly allocated nearly $440 million (R7.8 billion) in assistance to SA in 2023.
In a statement, the department says the working group on science, technology and innovation (STI) funding will also analyse the current geopolitical risks related to STI and how SA should position itself to deal with the current situation.
Additionally, it will propose policy and strategic responses to enhance the long-term security and sustainability of the STI system and the role of the Department of Science, Technology and Innovation.
'The working group is expected to provide the minister with its first draft report within four weeks after assumption of the task, and the final report to the minister is expected on 30 June,' it says.
The working group comprises: Dr Derrick Swartz: Nelson Mandela University – working group chairperson.
Professor Ari Sitas, acting director of the Institute of African Alternatives in Cape Town.
Professor Sarah Mosoetsa, CEO of the Human Sciences Research Council.
Dr Mlungisi Cele, CEO of the National Advisory Council on Innovation,
Professor Francis Petersen, chair of Universities South Africa.
Professor Thokozani Majozi, president and chair: Academy of Science of South Africa.
Professor Sibusiso Moyo, deputy vice-chancellor for research at Stellenbosch University.
Professor Ntobeko Ntusi, CEO, South African Medical Research Council.
Dr Fulufhelo Nelwamondo, CEO, National Research Foundation
Professor Sibongile Muthwa, vice-chancellor of Nelson Mandela University SA.
Professor Xolisa Mtose, vice-chancellor of the University of Zululand.
Dr Thulani Dlamini, CEO of the Council for Industrial and Scientific Research.
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JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Just a week had remained before scientists in South Africa were to begin clinical trials of an HIV vaccine, and hopes were high for another step toward limiting one of history's deadliest pandemics. Then the email arrived. Stop all work, it said. The United States under the Trump administration was withdrawing all its funding . The news devastated the researchers, who live and work in a region where more people live with HIV than anywhere else in the world . Their research project, called BRILLIANT, was meant to be the latest to draw on the region's genetic diversity and deep expertise in the hope of benefiting people everywhere. But the $46 million from the U.S. for the project was disappearing, part of the dismantling of foreign aid by the world's biggest donor earlier this year as President Donald Trump announced a focus on priorities at home. South Africa hit hard by aid cuts South Africa has been hit especially hard because of Trump's baseless claims about the targeting of the country's white Afrikaner minority. The country had been receiving about $400 million a year via USAID and the HIV-focused PEPFAR . Now that's gone. Glenda Grey, who heads the Brilliant program, said the African continent has been vital to the development of HIV medication, and the U.S. cuts threaten its capability to do such work in the future. Significant advances have included clinical trials for lenacapavir , the world's only twice-a-year shot to prevent HIV , recently approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. One study to show its efficacy involved young South Africans. 'We do the trials better, faster and cheaper than anywhere else in the world, and so without South Africa as part of these programs, the world, in my opinion, is much poorer,' Gray said. 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He said the work had promising results indicating that the vaccines were producing an immune response. But now that momentum, he said, has 'all kind of had to come to a halt.' The BRILLIANT program is scrambling to find money to save the project. The purchase of key equipment has stopped. South Africa's health department says about 100 researchers for that program and others related to HIV have been laid off. Funding for postdoctoral students involved in experiments for the projects is at risk. South Africa's government has estimated that universities and science councils could lose about $107 million in U.S. research funding over the next five years due to the aid cuts, which affect not only work on HIV but also tuberculosis — another disease with a high number of cases in the country. Less money, and less data on what's affected South Africa's government has said it will be very difficult to find funding to replace the U.S. support. And now the number of HIV infections will grow. 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'But let's be clear, what they are putting down will not be funding in the same way that the American resources were funding,' Byanyima said. ___ Associated Press writer Michelle Gumede in Johannesburg contributed to this report. ___ For more on Africa and development: The Associated Press receives financial support for global health and development coverage in Africa from the Gates Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at .

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