Wits Rural Knowledge Hub - Wits University

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Wits Rural Knowledge Hub (WiRKH) 网易体育

Centred at the stunning Wits Rural Campus in the South African Lowveld, at the interface between state and private conservation areas and rural communities, the Wits Rural Knowledge Hub (WiRKH) serves as a knowledge broker, linking science to action for sustainable development.

WiRKH is a hub that connects and integrates the research “spokes” of long-standing Wits research initiatives in and around the rural municipality of Bushbuckridge in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa, providing intellectual, organisational, and infrastructural support to the Wits academic project in the region for societal benefit.

Aim

To integrate, synthesise, and translate multi-disciplinary research in support of evidence-based action for positive change, particularly in rural areas.

The densely populated rural areas of the former Apartheid homelands of South Africa remain among the most under-developed parts of the country. At the same time, these areas are undergoing rapid demographic, health, socio-economic, and environmental transitions that pose both challenges and opportunities for sustainable development.

The Wits Rural Campus was established as a platform for generating data, knowledge, and human capital needed to respond to this rural South African reality. Established as the Wits Rural Facility by a visionary pair - Prof. John Gear and Joan Mavrondonis – in 1989, the Wits Rural Campus is a nexus of multi-disciplinary research, student training, and community engagement in the rural communities of Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga Province.

The Anglo American and De Beers Chairman’s Fund is acknowledged for a generous donation that enabled the University to purchase the Umbabat property in 1988, and for providing a significant proportion of the funding for the first four years of operation of the Wits Rural Facility (1989-1992). The substantial upgrading and expansion of facilities (2014-2019) was funded by the National Departments of Science and Technology (now known as Science and Innovation) and Higher Education and Training in support of transforming the Wits Rural Campus into a Knowledge Hub for Rural Development.

OUR WORK

Data: Advanced research infrastructures

Knowledge brokerage: Exchange and synthesis

Learning: Training, leadership and science career development

Reflecting: Academic retreat and thought centre

Engaging: Community engagement

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