The CSIR’s Dr Marten Gründlingh, who manages the data centre, says: “Marine information is key to a better understanding of issues such as climate change, weather and the impact of humans on the sea – including marine effluent, oil spills, shipping, mineral exploration and fishing. With increasing pressures on our marine environment, oceanographic data are essential to governments and other decision-makers.”

SADCO stores, retrieves and manipulates multidisciplinary marine information from the areas around southern Africa. Data are mostly collected from research vessels, vessels-of-opportunity, moored instruments or floating buoys. Much of this information is entered into global numerical models, such as those used for weather forecasting, to allow some prediction of climate events and trends, and even tracking of oil spills.

“Oceanographic data are costly,” says Gründlingh. “Considering the cost of a research vessel and the number of vertical profiles that can be collected per day, profiles cost about R10 000 each – SADCO has more than 250 000 such profiles and other data available. The centre is fully computerised, with some data sets going back to 1670!”

SADCO, which celebrates 20 years of existence this year, forms part of a global network of ocean data centres. These are all part of the UN’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, which was established 50 years ago.

“Southern Africa has a long coastline, with thousands of kilometres to the nearest continents in an easterly, southerly and westerly direction. It is exposed to the weather generated over the vast Southern Ocean, where the highest waves in the world have been observed. When these ocean conditions reach the coast of South Africa, they impact on our beaches and affect ports and shipping. The Agulhas Current, flowing southwards along the east coast, is the domain of so-called giant waves, created through interaction between storm waves and the Current. Many vessels have been severely damaged and lost because of this phenomenon,” notes Gründlingh.

“We believe the realisation of the importance and vulnerability of the sea starts at a young age. By making data and information about the oceans available to the public, and especially to schools, it could engender the sense of scientific investigation,” says Gründlingh.

SADCO is funded by a consortium comprising the CSIR, the Department of Environmental Affairs, the SA Navy, the South African Environmental Observation Network of the National Research Foundation and the Namibian Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources.

Gründlingh believes data management requires a long-term commitment – “Only in this way can we ensure that valuable data will remain viable for generations to come. By using this information responsibly, we can harmonise our existence with the sustainable involvement of the oceans.”

SADCO can be accessed at http://sadco.csir.co.za

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“Global pressures remain to reduce logistics costs, while increasing emphasis is being placed on providing quality service and adding value. Furthermore, in line with global trends, the drive towards a more sustainable logistics system is gaining prominence,” says Hans Ittmann, CSIR Built Environment Executive Director.

He adds that this year’s edition, themed ‘logistics value and costs – driving macro and micro-economic change towards global competitiveness and sustainability’, emphasises the critical economic value that should be derived from logistics. “The real mitigation of risk and realising sustainable logistics solutions can only, however, be generated through effective collaboration between private and public sectors, process improvements and structural changes,” Ittmann says.

The survey finds that though South Africa saw an increase of 6,9% in logistics costs compared to the previous year’s R317 billion, 2008 costs are at their lowest since 2004, totalling R339 billion or 14,7% of GDP. However, when compared to other countries’ logistics costs, e.g. the USA’s 9,4% (2008), domestic costs remain too high.

During 2008, the recessionary global oil price positively impacted industry costs, whereas SA’s higher-than-normal transport demand and poor network configuration, rising bad road conditions, radically increased storage and inventory costs, need for increased funding to bolster capacity and consistently increasing road corridor traffic had a negative effect. For example, the percentage of bad roads in SA’s secondary road network increased from 8% (1998) to 20% (2008) with significant deliveries routed via this road network.

“IMPERIAL Logistics is continuously working with our customers to implement sustainable solutions and, for me, that’s one of the positive things that one has to take out of the recession,” says Marius Swanepoel, CEO of IMPERIAL Logistics. “Our customers and companies in general are increasingly more interested to find better ways of doing things, which allows us to work closer with them to create more sustainable and cost effective solutions. It is more about taking waste out of the supply chain and I think this is what we’re seeing now.”

According to Dr Jan Havenga, Director at the Stellenbosch University Centre for Supply Chain Management, certain aspects of South Africa’s logistics cost situation still require significant attention. However, it is heartening to note that wide consensus exists among logistics stakeholders on many important initiatives.

Havenga says, “The challenge however remains: Although consensus exists around issues such as regeneration and use of rail capacity, not enough has been done yet. The competitiveness and sustainability of South Africa’s logistics system remain at risk and moving from consensus to action is long overdue. Public-private partnerships are a key success factor.”

Dr Sibusiso Sibisi, President and CEO of the CSIR, concurs and adds, “The State of LogisticsTM survey highlights the importance of the critical area of logistics and supply chain management in the global market. Since its 2004 maiden issue, it has aimed to provide a comprehensive picture of the state of logistics in South Africa through adopting a collaborative approach to knowledge generation. We believe the surveys open the way for further discussions, interactions and dialogue on various logistics and supply chain management issues.”

“This publication has become one of the premier references for logistics in South Africa through benchmark-driven research and long-term partnerships with IMPERIAL Logistics and Stellenbosch University,” concludes Ittmann.

Read the 6th State of LogisticsTM survey at www.csir.co.za/sol or www.imperiallogistics.co.za/sol.

CSIR International Convention Centre – Pretoria

Every second year, the CSIR dedicates two days at its Science: real and relevant conference to share its research progress, breakthroughs, and impact in an open forum. In 2010, the conference will be shaped around the areas in which the CSIR believes it is equipped to fulfil its mandate – which states that the organisation should improve the quality of life of South Africans through industrial and scientific development. These research impact areas are health, energy, defence and security, natural environment, built environment and industry.

Within the framework of these impact areas, the event is an opportunity for private sector players to learn about research that could help them strengthen their competitive edge; for stakeholders in government to learn more about how research is contributing to the country’s national priorities and for the academic sector to find out about their peers’ contribution to the global knowledge pool and opportunities for collaboration. The conference will also feature local and international opinion leaders who will contextualise and probe the topics. Don’t miss this opportunity to interact with the CSIR!

While no conference fees will be payable, registration will be required as a result of space limitations. Registration opens on 16 April 2010.

Click here if you would like the CSIR to notify you when registration opens.

With a double Masters degree (in education and business information systems) and a doctorate in the use of computer games for teaching, her research focuses on the use of information and communications technology for business enhancement, rural community informatics and e-health projects.

The IEEE awards event comes just ahead of the first annual conference for Living Labs in Southern Africa Network (LLiSA), which takes place at the CSIR International Convention Centre on 23 and 24 November 2009. As hosts of the LLiSA network, Herselman and her CSIR-based team have put together this event which has drawn over 150 registrations from all over southern Africa.

Living Labs is recognised internationally as a methodology and an innovation approach that works well in a multidisciplinary context in various settings, such as urban and rural environments.

It allows all stakeholders – government, society, industry and academia – to achieve their own goals and outcomes in support of a specific community. Users and citizens become active participants in experimentation and testing during projects and not merely passive receivers of innovation. In fact, all parties stand to gain through equal partnerships in the process.

The first LliSA conference event follows the launch of the initiative in February 2009. The interest demonstrated by commercial entities, non government organisations and universities at this event confirms that the Living Lab concept is seen as a winning recipe in southern Africa.

The LLiSA board has representatives from industry, academia, communities, the Department of Science and Technology, local governments and southern African Living Labs who are members of the European Network of Living Labs, as well as the Cooperation Framework on Innovation Systems between Finland and South Africa (COFISA) and the South Africa-Finland Knowledge Partnership on ICT (SAFIPA).

Herselmans past projects include database administration, as well as data collection in Limpopo on malaria detection via satellite navigation systems for the ReGlan rural community hospital project. This project focused on assisting EU countries in the development of an early detection and prevention system for serious diseases.

Her expertise has also been applied to technology assessment of rural communities. This was aimed at identifying which technologies are available and which technology adoption models are implemented by rural communities in SA.

She is currently busy with a National Research Foundation-funded research project on technology assessment models in rural communities in South Africa.

The start-up venture holds tremendous potential for using plants (in particular tobacco leaves) to generate proteins used in preventative post-exposure rabies treatment and other complex therapeutic proteins such as HIV antibodies at a competitive price. Earlier in the year and subsequent to winning the competition, a study tour was undertaken to Kentucky Bioprocessing (KBP).

Contract research and development manager at CSIR Biosciences, Fanie Marais, says,”KBP is well respected for its expertise in producing clinical grade biotherapeutics in plants. It has world-class good manufacturing production compliant (cGMP) facilities and provides contract services for bench scale, pilot and manufacturing process development in this field. cGMP conditions are essential for the production of antibodies that will go into early phase of safety testing.

“According to the agreement with the CSIR, KBP will assist in the development of a process for the purification and preparation of clinical grade monoclonal antibodies (i.e high purity antibodies suitable for use in clinical development). The technology will be transferred to the CSIR and as part of the technology transfer process, CSIR scientists will spend time at KBP for training in all stages of process development. The agreement with KBP will help us speed up the commercialisation process of RabiVirTM.”

“We will also obtain the necessary documentation from KBP as prescribed by the USA Food and Drug Administration to enable registration of the antibodies with the regulatory authorities.

“This development bodes well not only for the successful production and commercialisation of clinical batches of an anti-rabies antibody, which would be packaged as a post-exposure prophylaxis, but also for human capital development within South Africa,” Marais concludes.

*The SA Bio Business Plan Competition is an initiative of the Innovation Fund in partnership with Emory University in the USA with the ultimate aim of helping to promote the creation of new, venture capital friendly biotechnology companies based in South Africa. Entries were judged by an international panel of venture capitalists from the USA and Switzerland, most of whom have participated in biotechnology start-ups up to initial public offering.

The national backbone will interconnect Pretoria, Johannesburg, Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London and Durban on a 10 Gbps (Gigabits per second) optic fibre ring network. This network will enable the research community to engage in meaningful online collaboration. It will also be used to link to international bandwidth acquired for research purposes.

Negotiations have been underway with potential providers for the national backbone since the start of the SANReN project in 2007. Recent progress in the liberalisation of the South African telecommunications sector contributed to positive action by key players, resulting in the competitive tender process that has just been concluded. The most important factors considered during bid evaluation were the ability to deliver a next-generation network of the type required for research and education, the acceptability of the price offer and the national telecommunications footprint.

Commenting on this milestone, centre manager of the Meraka Institute, Kagiso Chikane states, “The national backbone will give institutions access to facilities such as the CHPC www.chpc.ac.za in Cape Town, enable the establishment of a national computing grid, and allow for large volumes of data transfer amongst institutions – typically a requirement of the research community. Of immediate relevance is the importance of the national backbone in supporting South Africa’s Square Kilometre Array bid to host the world’s most powerful radio telescope.”

Godfrey Ntoele, Telkom’s Group Executive for National Sales and Marketing Operations, adds: “We are pleased to count the CSIR as one of our most valued customers alongside the likes of Absa, the IEC and FIFA. That such a diverse array of customers has chosen to work with us attests to our network’s ubiquity and resilience as well as our management capabilities and expertise.”

Adds Ntoele: “It also highlights our growing reputation as a trusted adviser, tailoring solutions based on the specific needs of individual customers. This is complemented by our capacity to deliver Next Generation Network solutions based on leading-edge technologies and support functions rendered from our National Network Operations Centre in Centurion.”

Future plans for SANReN are the completion of metro networks in Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban. The national network will interconnect with the metro networks and enable all research institutions to have access to SANReN.