On Thursday, 18 January 2024 the DVC: RIE and acting VC Professor Nokuthula Sibiya led a delegation to the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA). The purpose of the visit was to learn how CAPRISA managed to place UKZN at the top of the universities in terms of research and how the centre could work collaboratively with MUT to advance its research agenda. Prof Abdul Karim, the Director of the Centre indicated that CAPRISA was founded/based on three broad principles which makes it unique and successful with world recognition. The centre is conscious of its mandate to always want to be the best. There is a programme that motivates staff to work and deliver to their best ability. Research outputs are in top international journals such as AIDS, Journal of Virology, Lancet journals; New England journal of Medicine. Journal articles are published in high-impact factor journals. There has been a yearly increase in publications from 19 in 2003 to 199 in 2022. Close monitoring enhances relevant publications of high quality. In the last 20 years, the centre has received 43 awards.
Prof Karim unpacked the importance of having thinkers in a research environment in order to produce new knowledge. Lastly, the centre prides itself serving humanity. The late and Honorable Nelson Mandela set the bar and the centre lives. CAPRISA has public education which it carries out through various media platforms online, print, TV and radio media coverage with an imprint of 2865 print media articles which is equivalent to 3 articles per day, 3210 broadcasts for both TV and radio, 13249 online articles, average 18 TV and radio coverage per day globally including coverage by media outlets across the USA, UK, Vietnam, Canada and India.
The MUT delegation took home several lessons from meeting Professor Karim and exploring the work that is done in the centre.