Page 6 - University of Pretoria Research Review 2017

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Introduction
Professor Stephanie Burton, Vice-Principal: Research and Postgraduate Education
The University of Pretoria has an established reputation for research quality and excellence, and a research strategy focused on societal challenges, in particular
the challenges faced by Africa. This Review highlights some of our research achievements in 2017 and underscores our commitment to contributing to the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and, closer to home, to the goals articulated in South Africa’s National Development Plan. Research is one mode of response in fulfilling the role that universities can play in addressing these priority agendas.
We have grouped the research profiled in the 2017 Review under four broad themes:
Development and change. From food security to the economy, the theme is introduced with a positioning text about UP research and the SDGs, and how we seek to translate our research endeavours into policies and practices for sustainable development. The theme further includes a focus on water, land and agriculture.
People and contexts. The first grouping of research on texts and history illustrates the complexity of the present, and research on human rights and dignity, which are at the core of the SDGs and Africa’s development trajectory. The theme concludes with research on what the future holds with a focus on artificial intelligence, digitalisation, and technologies that drive and depend on big data and data science.
Health and well-being. This theme illustrates how health and well-being tie together a number of the SDGs, and are precondition indicators as well as outcomes of successful sustainable development. The link between treatment and public health care policies is foregrounded, as is accessible and affordable health care. A further focus is on non-communicable diseases, which are of pandemic proportions in sub-Saharan Africa. The theme concludes with a brief focus on an approach to One Health to benefit communities, livestock and wild life.
Planet and sustainability. The final theme opens with texts on the bioeconomy, systems biology and agricultural biotechnology as catalysts for new research possibilities. This is followed by sections reporting on research on forests, trees and fungi, animal behaviour, competition
and cooperation, and the study of survival, and, finally, research on microbial ecology and biodiversity.