Academic Staff Development:

The main objective of this programme is to provide opportunities for the qualitative growth of early career academics already employed in the South African university sector to register for and complete higher degrees and to develop as research-active and well-rounded academics who are competent in teaching, research and community engagement. We believe that improving the qualifications of academic staff has the potential to significantly improve the quality of teaching of mathematical and statistical sciences at the undergraduate and graduate levels and improve research in these disciplines.

Research Training Networks:

The primary purpose of the programme is to pilot a model for PhD training in the Mathematical and Statistical Sciences which consciously and systematically seeks to address some of the shortcomings of the “Apprentice Master Model” prevalent in the South African university system and which also makes better use of existing expertise in the South African National System of Innovation.  Research Training Networks will be established or created around themes or focus areas where either

• there is a critical mass of productive researchers who are willing to collaborate around the training of PhD students and/or the mentoring early career researchers.  or
• strategically important areas of research that may be ‘vulnerable’, for example those that face  challenges in attracting and retaining the next generation of academics or those where productive researchers are nearing retirement or have already retired. The obvious example is ‘Academic Statistics’ and it could be that there is no expertise in some core and important subdisciplines of Statistics; or
• new and emerging areas of contemporary research and interest which are strategically important for some of the national priorities that have been identified by Government, and/or Private Sector. Obvious examples of these would various aspects of Data Sciences.​

Professional Career Development:

The objective of this programme will be to impart skills which will make graduates better prepared for employment in academia, private and public sectors. These ‘soft skils may include presentation skills, working in teams, competency in using commonly used computer packages in the Mathematical Sciences (e.g. LaTex; MathLab; Mathematica; R); programming and computing skills. Successful completion of activities under Professional Development would be reflected through receiving a certificate of attendance or certificate of competency. A threshold of minimum number of hours of engagement in such activities will be  determined by the individual institutions for the duration of the qualification.  This training will be aimed both at early career researchers as well as PhD students who are part of the Research Training Networks. The components of such a programme would include, but not limited to, (a) Development of a teaching portfolio; (b) Development of a Research Statement; (c) Acquiring IT competencies; (d) Scientific communication skills.

Vulnerable and Strategic Disciplines:

Academic Statistics is vulnerable due, amongst others, to the difficulty in attracting and retaining statistics graduates in academia. The National Research Foundation recognised that, without dedicated and ringfenced support aimed at the Next Generation, the discipline could reach suboptimal levels within the university sector. The need for such support remains. In the introductory section we highlighted the need to build capacity in new areas of high-level teaching and research, in order to support the national priorities referred to above.

New Trends and Future Directions:

The Academy will provide the members of the mathematical and statistical sciences communities with a platform for organising events around rapidly developing areas of research activity, cutting edge topics of exceptional contemporary interest and potential impact. These events could provide opportunities for established researchers to branch into new directions and increase the impact of their research. They would also serve as a platform for those interested in broadening their mathematical perspectives to learn new techniques and fundamental results that are crucial in following developments in a particular area. These could also serve to bring together early career researchers with senior and established researchers from both within and outside South Africa and create opportunities to establish new connections, collaborate and develop medium-term research programmes under the guidance of and advice from senior researchers and experts. 

Fuelling Innovation and Development:

The main purpose of this programme is to build bridges between the mathematics, statistics and data science communities within the university sector, with users of these disciplines in private and public sectors and non-governmental organisations.