Stellenbosch University (SU) announced on Wednesday that a consortium that it heads has been selected by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) to host the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS). The consortium is composed of 25 South African universities and research institutes.

The NITheCS will serve as a dynamic platform that will embrace a wide range of disciplines and scientific themes. These will include Astronomy and Astrophysics, Bioinformatics and Quantitative Biology, Climate Change Modelling, Data Science, Earth Systems Modelling, Statistics, and Theoretical Physics. Research programmes include biodiversity informatics and ecological modelling, computational modelling of materials, genomics and bioinformatics, machine learning, quantum technologies for sustainable development, and space-like mathematical structures, among others. 

“NITheCS welcomes the positive news shared by the DSI/NRF and we are deeply appreciative of the contributions by the 25 partner institutions to put together the consortium application,” affirmed NITheCS interim director and SU Professor Francesco Petruccione. “Credit must go to [SU Deputy Vice Chancellor: Research, Innovation and Postgraduate Studies] Prof Sibusiso Moyo for the strong role that she has played in the successful outcome of this consortium application.”

The strategic objectives of the NITheCS will be to produce new fundamental scientific knowledge and support high-impact research. It will create student pipelines that will run from undergraduate to postgraduate to postdoctoral and “early career innovation”. It will promote socioeconomic development through training and research.

“NITheCS embraces an ‘un-disciplinary’ approach by putting the problem at the top and bringing together the expertise from all over South Africa, Africa and the world to solve complicated questions, ensuring impactful and relevant research, driving transformative change and cultivating a vibrant scientific ecosystem,” highlighted Petruccione.

The institute will be organised into five nodes, each one covering part of the country. These nodes will be headed by University of the Witwatersrand (covering Gauteng province), the University of Cape Town (Western Cape), the University of KwaZulu-Natal (KwaZulu-Natal), Nelson Mandela University (covering the Eastern Cape and Free State provinces), and North West University (covering the country’s northern provinces).

The other members of the consortium are (in the order given by SU) the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, the University of the Western Cape, the University of Johannesburg, the University of South Africa, the University of Pretoria, Tshwane University of Technology, Vaal University of Technology, Durban University of Technology, Mangosuthu University of Technology, the University of Zululand, the Central University of Technology, Rhodes University, University of Fort Hare, the University of the Free State, Walter Sisulu University, the University of Limpopo, the University of Mpumalanga, and the University of Venda.