We have identified critical research issues which are related to sustainable development and poverty alleviation in central South Africa. These “mega-questions” are of the magnitude that they will provide a point of coherence for at least 5 years at UFS.

The Focus Areas encourage:

1. Interdisciplinary collaboration (often outside everyone’s “comfort zone”)
2. Opportunities to learn from people in other disciplines (and to read literature which normally is not found in one’s home discipline)
3. Involving postgraduate students
4. Surveying existing literature before launching onto new projects!(Consulting reports, theses and published literature).
5. Opportunity to link with key research localities or “knowledge hubs”
   
   • Eastern Free State/Qwaqwa
   • Graaff Reinet/Camdeboo
   • Carnarvon and Williston (Square Kilometer Array Telescope)
   • Gariep Dam area (meeting point of 3 Karoo provinces)
   • Jagersfontein.
6. Opportunities to network with people outside the university (eg. municipalities, private sector and provincial government)
7. Opportunities to raise funding from other sources.
8. Make policy impacts.
9. The key challenge is scientific excellence. Engagement with other stakeholders may well assist us in this goal.

The Focus Areas are:

Focus area 1: Health, Wellness, and Community Resilience

Focus area 2: Economic and Regional Development (including the informal sector, SMEs, tourism, land reform, human settlements, rural-urban linkages, and municipal governance.

There are linkages between these Focus Areas. For example, health issues may well affect local economic development; and SME development may build community resilience.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT of the CLUSTER:

1. Meetings and seminars are open to staff, postgrad students and members of government or civil society
2. Seminars are strongly interdisciplinary and promote collegial exchanges across departments and faculties
3. Cluster grants are used to raise counter-funding by other institutions
4. We encourage publications in academic journals by UFS staff
5. We build our networks with government, business and civil society, by means of policy briefs, consulting, and workshops.