Partnerships
"Of all continents, Africa is farthest from realising its full scientific potential". AEON has triggered an interesting response to this gloomy fact. Because science is globalised, AEON is building strong links and long-term partnerships with institutions throughout the world, to create a magnet for Africa's science diaspora, to offer a home for Africa-based research and mentorship, and to establish a role-model for African science that is internationally competitive and sensitive to the big issues the planet faces.
By opening a novel approach to intellectual work, AEON's scholars from different institutions and disciplines have been drawn together. Common sense suggests that this is a good idea: nobody believes that that a single discipline holds all the answers. At the cusp of their interdisciplinary enquiry is the idea of "Earth Stewardship Science" - understanding and explaining the relationship between the planet and life in the 21st Century.
But scholarship cannot do this in isolation. Because economic growth and the future of the planet are bound together, the business sector has much to offer the search for new understandings and fresh ideas. Discovering new ways to evaluate the Earth's resources is a promising place to start a conversation and new partnerships.
Successful navigation will only be possible through an old business principle, the trade-off. In the case of exploitation of natural resources, the trade-off between the real value of an environmental asset and what constitutes reasonable profit.
Although the principle is old, the trade-off is at the very core of how business will function in this century. This explains why all corporates, not only resource companies, are increasingly sensitive to the complexities of the way the planet works. Thinking outside the formal frame is only possible in a dynamic exchange that is embedded in robust science and a bridge of trust and respect between scientist and citizen.
As the call to common action increases, business and pressure-groups must find a ground on which to meet and deliberate. This must become a true market-place for ideas - an opportunity to trade information that is backed with the best that science and scholarship has to offer. A forum for ideas and conversation, the space to let minds roam free; a place of imagination and innovation: this is what the African academy increasingly needs. Together with like-minded partners, this is what AEON can deliver.
- in Africa
Into Africa with the Africa Earth Observatory Network
WHY?
The African academy is lame. Recently, the prestigious publication, Nature, noted that “of all continents, Africa is farthest from realising its full scientific potential”. The usual suspects – weak governments, inflation and regional conflicts – were blamed. This corrosion is chronic because many researchers have left the continent; and many of those who remain have left for other livelihoods.
- Related Documents
- Document: Into Africa with AEON (PDF 178KB)
- in Pangea
GFZ-Potsdam, Germany - Official twinning agreement between AEON and the Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences
Twinning GFZ-Potsdam with AEON-CapeTown
On February 05, 2008, AEON and GFZ-Potsdam signed an official ‘twinning’ agreement to enhance collaborative research and capacity building. The agreement was signed and by the Director of GFZ-Potsdam, Professor Dr R F Hüttl and the Vice Chancellor of UCT, Professor N S Ndebele, in the presence of the Federal Minister of Education and Research, Dr Annette Schavan, and a large number of dignitaries of the South African Department of Science and Technology, NRF, and several other South African Universities.
For further information about the agreement contact AEON (www.aeon.uct.ac.za) or GFZ-potsdam (www.gfz-potsdam.de)
For ongoing projects see Inkaba yeAfrica project: www.inkaba.org
- Related Documents
- Document: p/ship in pangea (PDF 80KB)
Alex du Toit - Special Issue
Message to Earth Scientists from Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki:
This issue of the Journal of African Earth Sciences draws together the deepening knowledge of the origin and evolution of Gondwana. For 500 million years Africa was the heartland of Gondwana before this supercontinent broke apart and separated into fragments that today make up the continents of the South. Africa comprises almost 21% of the Earth's continental surface; it is no wonder, therefore, that scientists from the North interested in Gondwana, come and search for fundamental geological clues on our continent. Much of the current Earth Science that takes place in this rich and alluring continent is done by non-Africans, as is clearly reflected in the authorship of the papers in this important issue. The time has come for many of the next generation of geoscientific pioneers to be Africans, bred and primarily trained on African soil. We therefore hope that the teaching and research efforts from countries external to Gondwana will be balanced against a growing interest from within the South, and especially Africa. Scientists from the first-world must consider their African counterparts as full and equal colleagues and share their scientific passions in a collaborative effort to unravel Africa's spectacular natural history. We wish you well in achieving these goals.
