Scientists fear Brexit — but the SA government is not worried
‘Since Brexit we have seen a huge interest in pushing up the Newton Fund, and bringing in other commonwealth countries’
Brexit poses no immediate threat to South African ties with scientists in the UK or the European Union, and may open up new funding opportunities for local researchers, according to Department of Science and Technology director-general Phil Mjwara. "We don’t think Brexit will have a huge impact on collaboration between British and South African scientists. In fact, since the announcement (of Britain’s plans to quit the EU) they have been looking for other forms of collaboration," he said on Monday evening, on the sidelines of the EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) 2018 in Toulouse. ESOF is Europe’s biggest interdisciplinary science meeting, and the week-long event runs until July 14. "Since Brexit we have seen a huge interest in pushing up the Newton Fund, and bringing in other commonwealth countries," said Mjwara. The Newton Fund is a UK initiative that has committed £735m until 2021 to build research partnerships, with matched commitments from participating countries. Mjwara’s confiden...
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