UCT R&I Highlights 2020-21 High res - Flipbook - Page 47
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UCT PAEDIATRICS RESEARCH
EARNS UK COVID-19 GRANT
The funding enables a project aimed at better understanding
COVID-19 in African children.
The National Institute for Health
Research/United Kingdom
Research and Innovation Global
Effort on COVID-19 (NIHR/UKRI
GECO) grant is a collaborative
funding opportunity. It has been
awarded to an international research
project under the leadership of Professor
Heather Zar, chair of the Department of
Paediatrics and Child Health and the director
of the South African Medical Research Council
Unit on Child and Adolescent Health at UCT.
In low-middle-income countries ,
children make up a large proportion of the
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population. They also face malnutrition, HIV
exposure, tuberculosis and prior infection
with endemic coronaviruses.
The awarded project aims to investigate
this spectrum of illness in African children and
identify their risk of infection and development
of SARS-CoV-2 infection or severe COVID-19
disease. Zar is collaborating with partners
at the universities of Western Australia and
Southampton in the United Kingdom.
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PROVIDING
POWER
TO SOUTH AFRICAN
COMMUNITIES
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Novel research into using renewable energy in off-grid informal
UNLOCKING UCT
LEADERSHIP IN STEMM
Associate Professor Gina Ziervogel has been invited to join Homeward
Bound, an international leadership programme.
An associate professor in the Department
of Environmental and Geographical
Science, Ziervogel is a geographer and
climate change adaptation expert. She is
one of 100 women chosen from across the
globe to join the one-year programme.
Homeward Bound is designed to
encourage women working in science,
technology, engineering, mathematics
and medicine (STEMM) to take on more
leadership roles. It involves 11 months of
collaborative online learning, with a voyage
to the Antarctic in the final month.
According to the World Economic Forum,
only 30% of global researchers in STEMM
are women. In South Africa, Stats SA shows
women make up 23% of the STEM workforce.
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settlements in South Africa has won Dr Jiska de Groot a Newton Prize.
The £500 000 award is shared between
De Groot and her international co-lead Dr
Federico Caprotti from the University of
Exeter in the United Kingdom (UK).
Titled ‘Urban transformation in South
Africa through co-designing energy services
provision pathways’, the project focuses on
providing clean, safe and reliable energy to
those who live in informal settlements.
Energy poverty is a major challenge in
South Africa. Many of the 1.25 million
households in informal settlements rely on
burning paraffin or wood to cook, and to
provide light and warmth at home. Not only
do these methods of energy production
create health and safety hazards, but they
also limit the economic and educational
opportunities of the people – most
commonly women and children – living in
these settlements.
To overcome these challenges, as well as
those posed by policy, legal and jurisdictional
barriers, the team developed a novel
approach to electricity supply in off-grid
areas. The solution involves using renewable
energy in combination with sustainable, payas-you-go business models.
In a video released by the Newton Fund,
De Groot said: “Our project is trying
to solve the global challenge of access
to affordable and clean energy for all.
Energy is an enabler of development. The
lack of energy doesn’t just create health
impacts, but also huge inequalities and
opportunities for people to develop.”
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