Under the auspices of Department of Science and Technology
and National Research Foundation
1 – 5 December 2014
The South African Global Change Science Committee, together with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University through the AEON - Earth Stewardship Science Research Institute, are excited to announce the hosting of the Second DST/NRF National Global Change Conference in Port Elizabeth between the dates of 1 and 5 December 2014, with the general theme of “Global Change Research in South Africa: towards integration across disciplines, sectors and scales”.
The Global Change Grand Challenge (GCGC) is now in its 4th year of implementation and together with related NRF/DST programmes on global change issues have made significant progress in the two years since the first NRF/DST conference was held. The main purpose of this conference is to bring together the diverse global change research community in South Africa in order to share recent research progress and outcomes across the broad scope of the Global Change Grand Challenge programme. This will provide the opportunity to foster greater trans-disciplinary and inter-institutional integration and collaboration.
The conference also aims to provide an opportunity for post-graduate research students and emerging researchers to locate their work in a broader context; while providing a platform for awareness of the multiple opportunities that exist for career development. In addition, planning for a future global change research strategy that is under consideration will be discussed with the research community present at the meeting. Furthermore, several new national, regional and international initiatives focused in southern Africa have been or are being established in the area of global change research and it will be useful opportunity to consider how these could be better integrated with existing and planned national research efforts.
The conference will be run in an innovative style, in that it will be paperless and will make maximum use of electronic media for the flow of information and presentation of posters. A strong emphasis on fostering connectivity among students and between students, emerging researchers and established mentors will guide the programme. The DST and NRF are providing comprehensive funding especially to provide students the opportunity to attend and participate intensively, including a transport arrangement to NMMU from the main urban centres. This offer is available to full time students with approved abstracts for papers or posters only. Students with approved abstracts or posters who are from remote venues will have the opportunity to engage with the organizers for special travel arrangements. In turn, the NMMU is providing generous access to conference facilities and on site residential accommodation.