The 2019 Research and Innovation Awards were held on the 22^nd November 2019 at the Hilton Hotel, Durban, to recognise excellence and achievements of the DUT researchers and innovators. The University has experienced rapid growth in its research performance over the last five years, achieving above its planned targets for the period 2015-2019 and in terms of the impact of the publications (according to Scival accessed 31^st October 2019), DUT performed above the global average of 1.

This increase is due to the efforts of those staff who strive for excellence, completed their doctorates, published in high impact journals, supervised pools of postgraduate students and competed for external grants to support the R&I activities.

In terms of actual institutional counts for 2019, DUT recorded 238.40 publications with 262 unique authors of which 35% (92) are female and 65%(170) are male. The percentage of academic staff with doctorates has increased from 24% (2017) to 29.6% (2019). The postgraduate percentage of enrolments has remained at 4% of the total enrolments. Additionally, in 2019, DUT supported 491 postgraduate students from both institutional and NRF grants that amounted to a total of R33 043 174. The number of National Research Foundation researchers increased from 30 in 2018 to 37 in 2019. In 2019, of the 37 NRF Rated Researchers, 30% are female and 70% are male. We hope to continue focusing on this to increase the number of female rated researchers.

The main host of the institutional awards, the Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Thandwa Zizwe Mthembu, emphasised the importance of performance management and how the R&I awards measure precisely key indicators which can identify staff who perform above the average. For 2019, the staff who had excelled above average in the R&I areas would get incentives which had been discussed with the DVC for Research, Innovation & Engagement. This was the first time the University has recognised R&I performance significantly and in line with benchmarked values! .

They keynote speakers for the awards evening included Dr Molapo Qhobela the Chief Executive Officer of the National Research Foundation. Dr Qhobela’s talk focussed on the need to continue to strive for excellence in research, promoting academic autonomy combined with research ethics and integrity. He further commended the researchers at the University for their hard work that has resulted in the growth of research outputs.

The second keynote speaker, Mr Sandras J. Phiri, Director: Startup Grind South Africa and CEO and co-founder: Africa Trust Academy, spoke about self-investment. He went further to explain that it is important for individuals to value themselves and explained that this is the basis of building the platform for entrepreneurship.

The awards evening was also attended by external stakeholders such as Councillor Fawzia Peer, Ms Susan D Knowles, Educational Specialist, Corporate Affairs, U.S. Embassy, Consulate General Durban  and Acting Consul General Ding Qiao from the Chinse Consulate General and Mr Mahmoud Youssef Baker from the IQRAA Trust (member of the DUT Foundation & Donor). Internal guests included Dr Isaac Machi, DVC: People and Operations; Prof Sibusiso Moyo, DVC: Research Innovation and Engagement; Prof Kevin Duffy, Research and Postgraduate Director (Acting); Executive Deans: Prof Nokuthula Sibiya (Health Sciences) and Prof Suren Singh (Applied Sciences); Deputy Deans: Prof Paul Musonge (Engineering and the Built Environment) and Prof Brian Pearce (Arts & Design); Dr Vuyo Mthethwa, Senior Director: Human Resources; Dr Frank Wu, Confucius Institute; Prof Faizal Bux, Director: Institute for Water and Wastewater and DUT – Staff and Postgraduate Students.

The DVC Research, Innovation & Engagement, Professor Sibusiso Moyo, acknowledged the Vice-Chancellors’ strategic vision and intervention in scaling up the 2019 R&I awards and promoting excellence and performance management which would ensure our researchers have something to aspire to with clear indicators which will be refined to ensure everyone understands how they can participate and compete for the R&I awards from 2020 onwards. She thanked the Research and Postgraduate Support Directorate, the Guest Speakers, Guests, Staff and students.

The highlights of the evening were the recipients who excelled based on their 2018 outputs inclusive of a number of indicators over and above the publications, postgraduate students supervised and grants acquired including mentorship of emerging researchers. Congratulations to the following recipients:

Pictured: Professor Sibiya for Senior Researcher of the Year, Professor Bux for: VICE-CHANCELLOR’S AWARD and RESEARCH IMPACT AWARD and DUT Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Professor Thandwa Mthembu

Prof S Moyo, Ms V Govender and Dr K Oparinde.