News

Future Africa to support new Africa–Asia partnership on innovation, skills and leadership development

Future Africa will help implement a new UP–AfDB–University of Tokyo partnership, signed on 14 November 2025, to advance Africa–Asia collaboration on innovation, leadership development and sustainable industrialisation.

Future Africa introduces new cohort of research fellows from 10 African countries

Future Africa at the University of Pretoria introduces 22 outstanding early-career researchers as the second cohort of the FAR-LeaF Fellowship. Supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the programme builds research leadership, collaboration and transdisciplinary skills to address Africa’s most complex sustainability challenges.

Press Release – Lancet Countdown Africa publishes landmark report on Climate Change and Health in Africa

Lancet Countdown Africa, hosted at Future Africa at the University of Pretoria, has published a landmark health policy report detailing how climate change is intensifying economic losses, driving food and health insecurity, and slowing progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals across the continent.

Future Africa’s One Health Chair strengthens Africa’s voice in global health leadership

Professor Wanda Markotter, Future Africa’s One Health Chair at UP, advances Africa’s role in global health governance through high-level engagements in Berlin and Geneva.

New Future Africa learning lab reimagines people–nature relations in Africa

Future Africa has launched the African Political Ecologies Learning Lab, creating a space for African scholars to explore people–nature relations and strengthen locally grounded sustainability research. Interested researchers can contact

Land, loss and legacy: can South Africa’s natural heritage ever be shared?

South Africa’s landscapes are breathtaking, but can they ever be truly shared? In this opinion piece, Future Africa's Prof Maano Ramutsindela and Dr Clarietta Chagwiza reflect on how colonial legacies, conservation practices and land reform shape our relationship with nature, and what it will take to make heritage a collective good.

The Tomato Paradox: When abundance meets shortage in Africa’s food systems

Marking World Food Day 2025, Dr Ololade Abdulrahman, a Research Fellow in the Future Africa Research Leadership Fellowship programme, examines Nigeria’s “Tomato Paradox” and calls for innovation to strengthen Africa’s agrifood systems.

Working hand in hand for food system transformation for a better future

To commemorate World Food Day 2025, the FAR-LeaF Food Security Cluster will host a virtual panel on 16 October, bringing together African experts to explore how biophysical and social innovations can work together to transform agrifood systems for sustainability and equity.

“Are bats like us?” Future Africa artist-in-residence on the launch of Co-MammalHub at Ditsong Museum

Dr Nicola Grobler, artist-in-residence at Future Africa, reflects on the launch of the Co-MammalHub – a UP and DMSA collaboration reimagining human–wildlife connections through bats.

Future Africa hosts symposium to welcome new FAR-LeaF cohort

A week-long symposium at Future Africa brought together 22 postdoctoral fellows from 10 African countries to launch the second cohort of the FAR-LeaF fellowship, fostering leadership, collaboration, and new research networks.