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Durban University of Technology 16number of initiatives, including the Fulbright programme. They have previously collaborated on higher education leadership capacitation, while more recent collaborative initiatives saw USA and SA universities partnering on a variety of research priorities. By withdrawing foreign aid, the Trump administration risks undoing progress realised in joint programmes, thus diminishing its global standing in the fight against poverty, hunger, disease and natural disasters. %u201cNow, more than ever, sustained system-to-system collaboration is essential to overcoming shared challenges,%u201d he said. %u201cGlobal challenges transcend HIV/AIDs, tuberculosis and malaria, by far,%u201d the USAf Chair went on to say. %u201cDiscontinuity of aid in these areas will significantly impact the joint research enterprise of our universities and their partners: UNAIDS, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and affiliated entities%u201d. Aid withdrawal may also halt all clinical trials, resulting in the termination of staff/researchers%u2019 contracts, and negatively impact the students involved. In addition, it will potentially interrupt all community engagement led by the various research centres in this context. %u201cHowever, the USA also stands to lose out on the raft of benefits that flowed from these projects,%u201d he said. %u201cIn the short term, we need strong lobbying by our research partners in the United States to impress upon the Trump administration the interdependence of nations. The USA needs other nations as much as they need the USA.%u201d In conclusion, Professor Petersen said that Trump%u2019s withdrawal of foreign aid %u201cunderlines the urgency on our part to diversify funding sources for our research priorities.%u201d Universities South AfricaThe Board of Directors of Universities South Africa (USAf) was dismayed by the US federal government%u2019s recent decision to freeze international aid in the quest to stay true to President Donald Trump%u2019s %u2018America first%u2019 policy stance. The challenges facing humanity in the 21st century are both local and global in nature, necessitating system-to-system research collaborations more than ever before %u2013 if nations are to find lasting solutions to these common challenges. %u201cNo one nation has it all,%u201d the Chairperson of USAf, Professor Francis Petersen, said from Pretoria recently. He said that as research collaboration unlocks financial resources from some nations, it facilitates the cross-pollination of ideas from unique geographic, historic and cultural contexts, yielding a rich tapestry of knowledge and insights for universal benefit. He cited South Africa%u2019s discovery of the Omicron variation of COVID-19 in 2021, from which invaluable recommendations on future global surveillance systems emerged. %u201cIf the world defeated the COVID-19 pandemic by working together, no one nation can afford to isolate itself from the global battle against modern-day challenges such as pandemics and climate change. It is regrettable that the Trump administration chooses to blind itself to this fact.%u201d He said that South Africa and the United States boast a solid history of research collaborations dating back to pre-democracy (1994). As the two countries%u2019 HIV and AIDs research innovation unleashed a massive anti-retroviral treatment programme for just under 6 million people in South Africa, the studies equally yielded policy insights for both South Africa and the US %u2013 especially pertaining to communities in low socio-economic contexts in both countries. The two nations have enjoyed scholarly exchanges through a USAF LOOKS TO US RESEARCH PARTN ERS TO LOBBYAGAINST THE BAN OF FOREIGN AID TO CRITICAL RESEARCH