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Dr Similo Ngwenya will be based at RoRI and STEaPP-UCL for two years
This week, RoRI was joined by Dr Similo Ngwenya through a newly-announced British Academy International Fellowship.
One of only 12 International Fellowships to be awarded by the British Academy in 2024, Dr Ngwenya will be based at RoRI and STEaPP-UCL for two years, undertaking her project, ‘Shaping the Future: Social Science Research for Progress in Southern Africa.’
Dr Similo Ngwenya was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST) at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. She was part of the international project IN-Forest, which explored the interplay between evaluation and inequalities in science, using forest science as an empirical case. This project was a collaboration between researchers from The Department of Science, Technology and Society (STS) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany; The Centre for Research on Evaluation, Science and Technology (CREST), Stellenbosch University, South Africa; The Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, The Netherlands and the Tanzania Forestry Research Institute (TAFORI), Tanzania.
As a British Academy Research Fellow at RoRI, Dr Ngwenya will undertake metascientific research to explore and analyse the changing landscape, impacts and interdependencies of SHAPE research in Southern Africa, along with other related projects. Reflecting on this opportunity, she shared:
I am very excited and look forward to this great opportunity to contribute a Southern perspective to the ongoing global discourse on social science and humanities research. I hope that my time at RoRI and UCL will allow me to grow, expand my research network and reach new heights I never imagined.
In March, Dr Similo Ngwenya, together with James Wilsdon (RoRI Executive Director) and Deborah Farmer (RoRI Head of Operations) will be travelling to Stellenbosch to attend the CREST 30th anniversary conference, as well as a series of meetings with delegates from the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF), a core partner of the RoRI Consortium. This will strengthen RoRI’s collaborations in the region as part of our broader efforts to expand activities, partnerships, and networks in South Africa.