My vision for the future of research at UP and how I will contribute to this development
The interdisciplinary and collaborative nature of the institute for Cellular and Molecular Medicine within the Faculty of Health Sciences will push scientific research to the forefront amongst leading Universities in the country. I feel like even though the vision is to be collaborative - the actual execution and follow through will be difficult because of the current policy on getting reward and acknowledgement for output. The perception is that currently financial support and incentives are awarded to specific departments and this creates a divide and competition between people who would be more efficient working together and being rewarded equally. In my opinion, the University vision on paper and there needs to be a more deliberate and proactive encouragement of intradepartmental, interdepartmental, trade and industry collaboration. The national guidelines for science and and technology emphasizes that basic research is important but there is also lack of proactive integration of basic science to applied sciences that will engage in that will ultimately benefit the well-being of South Africans. My vision to aid this process is to engage in science leadership training, the application and sharing of essential creative thinking tools and equipping my students, both undergraduate and postgraduate, with knowledge whilst linking them to creative problem solving skills.