ÍøÒ×ÌåÓý Us

The SA Medical Research Council/Wits-Agincourt Unit's research is driven by deep, long-standing partnerships with local communities, a future-focused longitudinal approach, and data-driven insights that track evolving health and social dynamics.

We collaborate with host communities and local institutions to understand and address the evolving health, population, and social transitions in rural South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. By generating actionable insights, we strengthen public health, governance, and social responses—shaping national, regional, and global health and development policies.

What are 'social transitions'?

In the context of rural South and sub-Saharan Africa, social transitions often involve rapid urbanisation, changes in family structures, evolving gender roles, and shifts in healthcare accessibility—factors that significantly shape health and disease patterns over time.

All our research areas address four fundamental questions:

• • How can we better understand and anticipate the rapid and unpredictable shifts in health, population, and social transitions?
  • What are the complex interactions between social, environmental, behavioural, and biological factors that shape vulnerability and resilience across the life course?
  • When, where, and how can we intervene most effectively to drive meaningful change?
  • What are the implications for health, social, and developmental policies to create a more equitable, socially cohesive, and economically productive society?

Our primary research base sits in a fast-changing rural region, 500km northeast of Johannesburg, near Kruger National Park and southern Mozambique. In a landscape often overshadowed by South Africa’s urban focus, we bring cutting-edge science to communities bearing the country’s heaviest disease burden.

Pioneering data infrastructure and tools

Making well-characterised data available to research and policy communities is a priority.

The Agincourt Health and Socio-Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) holds high-resolution longitudinal data, driving new discoveries and cutting-edge research. Spanning genomic, physiological, and clinical data, it supports groundbreaking studies, cohorts, and trials across the life course.

Once limited to high-income settings, advanced technologies now shape our work—smartphone apps tackle adolescent depression, DXA scans assess osteoporosis, and MRI scans unlock insights into dementia.

SAMRC/Wits-Agincourt is a founding node of SAPRIN, a national research network uniting public and academic institutions to drive high-impact science. As part of South Africa’s Research Infrastructure Roadmap, SAPRIN strengthens research capacity, fosters collaboration, and upholds the highest ethical standards.

Generating critical data supports evidence-based policy and shapes a more resilient, responsive research ecosystem for the country.

Local capacity building

The SAMRC/Wits-Agincourt Unit builds the capacity of local staff, has a data intern programme, supervises doctoral students, and mentors postdoctoral fellows and early to mid-career researchers. It provides leadership to sub-Saharan African research networks and partners with leading African, UK, and US institutions.

Altogether, the Unit contributes unique, population-oriented insights to support health and development in rural South and Southern Africa.