Call for nominations: 2021/2022 NSTF-South32 Awards

Register nominations online by 10 December 2021!

The National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF) calls for nominations for the 24th NSTF-South32 Awards. These prestigious awards focus on science, engineering and technology (SET) and innovation in South Africa (SA). South32 is the co-branding sponsor for the past six years. As such the name of the awards is the NSTF-South32 Awards.

Special Annual Theme Award: The NSTF’s theme for 2022 is ‘Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development’, in support of the international year as proclaimed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The Special Annual Theme Award for 2021/2022 will be made for an outstanding contribution to SET and innovation from research and development in the basic sciences for sustainable development. The basic sciences are defined here as the scientific disciplines of mathematics, physics, chemistry, life sciences, earth sciences and astronomy.

Contributions recognised: Register nominations for individuals, teams, partnerships and organisations for an outstanding contribution to SET and innovation in SA. The contributions recognised are in the following broad areas:

· Scientific research

· Management of SET and innovation and related activities

· Capacity building in engineering research

· The Green Economy

· Water management solutions

· Data for research

· Innovations and their research and/or development

· Communication and creating awareness of SET and innovation

· Non-governmental organisation activities, which could include technology transfer, and education and training activities

· Basic sciences for sustainable development

There are no changes to the criteria of categories, apart from the following:

1. Special Annual Theme Award: The NSTF is making a special award this year for an outstanding contribution to SET and innovation arising from research and development in the basic sciences for sustainable development. This is in support of sustainable socio-economic growth in SA.

2. Engineering Research Capacity Development Award: This award (sponsored by Eskom) is broadened this year to allow for teams to be nominated, as well as for engineering capacity development that led to engineering research capacity development. The framework of the award remains the same.

3. Data for Research Award: The NSTF under the guidance of a team of experts through the Data Intensive Research Initiative of South Africa (DIRISA) and the Network of Data and Information Curation Communities (NeDICC) re-modelled this category last year. This category continues, acknowledging an individual or a team (including data scientists, data stewards, innovators, as well as repository and data centre managers) for the generation, preservation, sharing and/or re-use of a valuable scientific output – the research data set. Data products, data repositories and data centres are also eligible for team recognition. The intention is to recognise the value of a data set that is of national interest or for the public good, and that is openly available to be re-used and/or re-packaged in products that are of public good and interest, or that could be integrated into products that contribute to the development of South Africa.

4. Green Economy Award: This award is re-established as a vital area for innovation, research and development in environmental sustainability, biodiversity conservation and a greener economy.

5. Participation of past NSTF winners (1998-2021): To clarify the interpretation of the terms and conditions of section 2, sub-paragraph 2, note 1 has been added. This note spells out category by category how previous winners might approach a further nomination. This has particular relevance to teams where a member of the team has been a previous winner.

Remember previous changes that are continued:
6. Communication Award: A special call is made to professional science communicators to apply.

7. Innovation Awards: A major change to this category was introduced in 2017 with greater emphasis on ‘innovation’. Hence the name changed to ‘Awards for innovations and their research and/or development’ over the last 5 to 10 years through either a small, medium or micro enterprise (SMME) or a corporate organisation.

8. Research Awards: All research categories are open to anyone involved in research. Previously, it was implied that a PhD qualification was a pre-requisite. This is clearly no more the case, and the focus on the further development of outputs towards innovation was strengthened. The periods are now clearly anchored to the commencement of the research.

A transformed country where SET and innovation contribute to a high quality of life for all who live in South Africa, where the profile of SET professionals is representative of the population’s profile and where the education system is effective, particularly in terms of performance in SET subjects and promoting innovation.

The NSTF Awards are one of the ways in which the NSTF strives to realise its vision.

This is a two-stage nomination process:

Stage 1 – Register a nomination by Friday 10 December 2021

1. Please note that registering a nominee is only the beginning of the two-stage nomination process. When you register a nominee, the NSTF Office will respond with the official category nomination form, to be completed by 1 March 2022 (Stage 2).

2. Notify the nominee that you intend to nominate him/her/them (team/organisation). Ensure that you receive their agreement to participate.

3. Complete and submit the online registration. The nominee will receive an email notification from Awards@nstf.org.za confirming receipt of your registration of their contact details. Please alert the NSTF Office at awards@nstf.org.za should the nominee not receive this notification and the relevant forms (the subject line says: ‘Subscription Confirmation’).

Stage 2 – Submit completed nomination documents by Tuesday 01 March 2022

· Ensure that the fully completed nomination form/s are emailed to the NSTF before the final deadline and that you receive a confirmation from the NSTF Office.

· Please note that planning and time are required to complete the nomination document. Hence there is a two and a half months period (December to March) provided for this preparation.

Full title of categories: All the awards are ‘for an outstanding contribution to science, engineering and technology (SET) and innovation in South Africa…’ (The complete title of each award starts with this wording in place of “contribution”.)