The project is a collaboration between the University of Pretoria, North Carolina State University (NCSU), Nipissing University, University of Saskatchewan and South African National Parks. The IMAGINE-team seeks to generate transdisciplinary knowledge on resilience in rural, high disparity communities. Four doctoral students from the  University of Pretoria's ERA Unit are accessing the long-term ecological sites for data generation, and three doctoral students from the Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute (FABI) are also participating in the project.

The team applied for support for Dr Elizabeth Nichols, Associate Professor in the Department of Forest and Environmental Resources at the College of Natural Resources at NCSU, to spend time in South Africa. Financial support for the visit was granted via the University of Pretoria Staff Exchange Bursary Program.

The purpose of the visit by Dr Nichols, an expert on water quality and phytoremediation, is to contribute to analysis and writing sessions, during which the team wishes to integrate data sets across disciplines. She will be in South Africa during June and July 2013, visiting the Wits Rural Centre in Bushbuckridge and one of the long-term ecological research sites, Hamakuya in Venda.