Professors Rachel Mills and Damon Teagle have recently returned from their first visit to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU) where they initiated a number of areas of collaboration as part of a new partnership between the University of Southampton and NMMU in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
This emerging centre of excellence is a new partner for the University; underpinned by a successful bid to the Newton fund for 3-year PhD partnering programme in the area of Marine and Maritime and the appointment of Professor Mike Roberts as the first jointly funded Newton-National Research Foundation research chair.
PhD partnering opportunities are available to students from both institutions and initial areas of joint research will include invasive species in coastal ecosystems, tracking fish migration using novel geochemical techniques, impact of noise pollution on marine mammals and other species, coastal sediment dynamics and interactions with the coastal built environment and novel algal culturing techniques.
NMMU hosts the Africa Earth Observatory Network led by Professor Maarten de Wit, which has developed the new academic field of Earth Stewardship Science. The next steps for the Southampton-NMMU collaboration will be the development of transdisciplinary research efforts in the Indian Ocean.
The next steps for Southampton – NMMU collaboration will see development of closer links with AEON to deliver this vision through transdisciplinary research efforts in the Indian Ocean.
There will be annual calls for PhD students interested in partnership activity; the first call will open in February 2016 for students interested in placements at NMMU later in 2016