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On 8th of March 2019, the CSIR launched a state-of-the-art online climate risk profiling and adaptation tool to assist municipalities across South Africa to assess climate risks and growth pressures, by implementing adaptation actions towards the development of climate resilient human settlements.
“The open access, online tool – named the Green Book – is intended to be an applied knowledge resource for municipalities to address climate change impacts and vulnerabilities in human settlements.
The CSIR has released the findings of a life cycle sustainability assessment (LCSA) of grocery carrier bags in South Africa. LCSA is a useful tool that unpacks the environmental, social and economic impacts of a product throughout its life cycle. The study shows that reusable plastic carrier bags are the best option in South Africa, as they have a subtantially lower environmental impact compared to single-use bags – provided that consumers do actually reuse them.
Media statement
The African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) and the CSIR are strengthening their partnership through formalised technical cooperation to accelerate technology development in Africa.
The renewed cooperation covers the conduct of applied research, development and innovation (RDI) with a strong focus on localised transformative technologies and accelerating their deployment for socioeconomic transformation.
Conventional reading is currently accessible only to the traditionally literate person. Many school learners face barriers to reading, and consequently learning, due to early literacy difficulties, visual impairment, dyslexia and other special educational needs. The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is helping to change this with the development of a user-friendly application (app) that adds and synchronises human-narrated or computer-generated audio to text.
With the expertise and involvement of a team of port and coastal engineers from the CSIR, the website of the CLDSA now offers daily water temperature readings of the Atlantic water temperature enveloping Robben Island. This is set to benefit the iconic isle that continues to attract swimmers and athletes from across the world, notably, marathon swimmers who enjoy extreme endurance and adventure in the chilly waters off Cape Town.
CSIR researchers are producing mycotoxins that will support the National Metrology Institute of South Africa (NMISA) to provide more affordable and easily accessible measurement standards for mycotoxin testing by laboratories locally and on the continent.
CSIR researchers in polymers and composites are making strides in the development of bioplastics that will be 100% biodegradable and suitable for recycling. This technology will contribute to the reduction of environmental pollution and could boost local job creation in manufacturing.
In 2019, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) forum, organised and hosted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Geneva, Switzerland, celebrated its 10th anniversary. The CSIR’s Dr Jabu Mtsweni served as one of 14 high-level track facilitators, having been nominated by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
On Wednesday, 26 June 2019, a select group of young researchers briefed the media in Pretoria. The purpose of the briefing was to highlight the impact of, the opportunities available and future skills required by young people to thrive in the rise of the 4IR. CSIR researchers shared their research projects in areas such as machine learning, robotics and additive manufacturing.
Only a handful of people in South Africa have mastered Stem Cell reprogramming and Dimakatso Gumede (34) is one of them. As a CSIR candidate researcher of the bioengineering and integrated genomics research group, she works on creating disease models of the innate immune system to study unique African gene variants that lead to elite controllers that naturally control viral load levels without antiretroviral therapy.