Unit for Research and
Innovation
The vision of the Central University Technology, Free State
(CUT) is to be “a globally connected African university of technology that
focuses on the needs of Southern Africa and support graduates for citizenship
with skills and competencies in appropriate technologies.”
Mindful of the drivers of this vision, the Unit for Research and
Innovation supports this vision through the creation and implementation of new
knowledge. Core to new knowledge creation is the innovative nature of
knowledge. Innovative knowledge simply means that knowledge is created
differently from the linear
fashion in which knowledge is normally created.
Scientific innovation calls for the cross-fertilisation between
different disciplines together with the immediate needs of the economy
(entrepreneurship and commercialisation). Innovative knowledge contributes to
what is commonly
known as usefulness knowledge.
Prof Laetus Lategan
Dean of Research and Innovation
Tel: +27 51 507 3279
Fax: +27 51
507 3275
E-mail: llategan@cut.ac.za
Currently, the Unit for Research and Innovation consists out of these
divisions:
Community Engagement

Mrs Jeeva Munsamy
Community Engagement
Manager
Tel: +27 51 507 3583
E-mail: jmunsamy@cut.ac.za
The Unit for Research and Innovation wants to contribute towards
a stimulated academic heartland that will contribute towards citizenship with
skills and competencies in appropriate technologies.
Research and Development
Focus of research and development
Institutional research development
Institutional structures for the
management of research development
Research policies and procedures
Research and development plan
Research programmes
CUT Research Grants
Research publications
Technology
and Innovation
Technology Transfer
Innovation
Library
and Information Services
LIS
goals
Collection
development section
Cataloguing
section
Information
Section
Circulations
Section
Systems
Development Section
Community
Engagement
Research and Development
Focus of research and
development
The core values informing the research at the CUT are:
·
Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) and the management of
SET research
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Applied research informed by industry/business problems
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Partnerships with industry/business/government (“triple helix”)
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Knowledge production in the context of Mode 2 Knowledge
Generation
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Scholarship in teaching and research
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Research projects leading to SET qualifications
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Income generation through research
·
Entrepreneurship through innovation
This strategy of the CUT is in line with
the National Plan on Higher Education (NPHE, 2001) which identifies two
particular outcomes for research:
·
Outcome
13: Research
concentration and funding linked to outputs.
·
Outcome
14: Increased
graduate enrolments and outputs at the masters and doctoral level.
Concrete strategies are formulated for
the CUT to meet these outcomes. The strategies are:
·
To increase the number of research outputs in accredited
journals
·
To facilitate the through-put of postgraduate students in the
minimum time
·
To sustain and promote research through public and private
funding
·
To promote regional collaboration
In essence, the research development at the CUT will be directed
at:
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Enhancing the scholarly work of the established researchers at
the institution.
·
Building capacity amongst the new researchers of the
institution.
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Expanding the enrolment in the M & D Degree students at the
institution.
·
Developing research into a sustainable third stream of income.
Institutional research development
Since 2002 the Office for Research and Development was
positioned as an academic support service. The main purpose of this
Office is therefore to facilitate all research and to support the development of
research at the CUT. Following on this objective, the management of research
development is directed at the support of the following activities:
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Projects for non-qualification purposes
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Research projects leading to postgraduate qualifications
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The development of research skills of staff and students
through seminars, workshops, personal interaction and publication
opportunities
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The marketing of research activities
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Partnerships with public and private funding agencies and
regional, national and international universities
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The raising of external funds for research
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Research publications (in-house journal, scientific journal,
research books, newsletters, brochures and annual report)
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General research and financial administration
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Budget for research development
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Research Developmental policies and procedures
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Institutional structures for the management of
research development
The Office for Research and Development’s main function is to
facilitate the sustainable development of research and postgraduate studies. This
function is supported by the following structures:
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Graduate School Board
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Assessing the quality of postgraduate programmes.
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Measuring the development of supervisors.
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Measuring the progress in enrolment, retention and through-put
of postgraduate students
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Central Research Committee
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Assessing the quality of research projects.
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Assessing the quality of publications.
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Measuring the increase in research outputs.
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Identifying strategic research initiatives.
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Drafting the research budget.
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Measuring the progress with Three Year Rolling Plan and NPHE
objectives.
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Identifying criteria for contract researchers.
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Identifying criteria for post-doctoral fellows.
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Identifying criteria for attending national conferences.
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Identifying criteria for attending international conferences.
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Identifying criteria for research collaboration.
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Research Grants Awards Committee
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Awarding of bursaries (full-time / part-time postgraduate
students)
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Awarding of project cost.
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Awarding of awards for research not leading to qualifications.
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Awarding of scholarships for post-doctoral fellows.
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Promoting research equity.
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Drafting the research budget.
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Research policies and procedures
Research activities are managed according to the following
policies and procedures. The policy and procedures are:
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The regulation, recruitment and appointment of postdoctoral
research fellows.
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The recruitment and appointment of research fellows.
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Ownership of equipment bought for research projects.
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Research Grant Award.
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Remuneration of researchers for accredited research outputs.
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Attendance of international research conferences, congresses,
symposia and workshops.
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The attendance of academic conferences in South Africa .
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Awarding of research awards/prizes.
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The administration of the pay-out for research projects.
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Postgraduate equity.
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Research and development plan
A Research and Development Plan was approved for 2005 – 2010.
The objectives of the plan are:
Objective 1: The development of staff and student
researchers
Objective 2: Postgraduate retention and throughput
Objective 3: Increase in accredited publications
Objective 4: Accreditation of Journal for New
Generation Sciences
Objective 5: Sustainability of existing external
funded research projects
Objective 6: Ongoing development of new SET research
niche areas
Objective 7:
Develop and sustain partnerships with public and private funding
agencies and regional, national and international universities
Objective 8: Develop and sustain partnerships with
business and industry
Objective 9: Increase the income through research
projects
Objective 10: Develop postdoctoral research fellows as
future research fellows of the CUT
Objective 11: Market the CUT as regional leader in SET
research
Objective 12: Develop opportunities to read papers at
national and international conferences
Objective 13: Measuring the impact of the research
Research programmes
The CUT has identified ten strategic SET research programmes
(focus programmes) which can be clustered into three foci. Some of these
programmes have already earned external funding and have identified initiatives
to be sustained within the next three years. Benchmarks for focus programmes
are the number of postgraduate students, postdoctoral fellows, amount of
external funding, number of active researchers, rated researchers, research
publications (books, articles, published conference proceedings and reports). These
research programmes and their foci are:
Research Focus
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Research Programme
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Industrial design, communication and
development
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New product development and design
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Automated material handling and radio frequency identification
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Hydro-informatics
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Information and Communication Technology
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Quality of health and living
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Applied food safety and biotechnology
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Bio-environmental studies
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Applied health technology
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People and skills development
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Socio-economic development studies
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Education (sub -themes: medical education, general education,
service learning, technical and technological education)
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Research education
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CUT Research Grants
A valuable support
system for staff and postgraduate students is the CUT’s Research Grants Awards
System. The purpose of this scheme is to create a research culture,
empower staff and students to be engaged in research and to address equity in
research. Ten categories of bursaries are awarded:
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Full-time postgraduate students
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Part-time postgraduate students
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Staff studying for a postgraduate qualification at the CUT
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Post-doctoral fellows
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Research fellows/associates
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Project cost
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Top-up funding for external research projects
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Seed money for a research activity to be developed into a niche
area
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Research assistance related to the development of an activity
into a niche area
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The development of externally funded projects
Research publications
The CUT offers the following research publications (journals and
research series):
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An in-house publication, Interim, published twice a
year. The goal of the journal is to give new researchers the opportunity to
publish their research and senior researchers to publish work in progress.
These articles are all peer-reviewed to expose researchers to the peer-review process
(ISSN 1648-498X).
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An interdisciplinary journal, Journal for New Generation
Sciences, published twice a year. This journal is a Department of
Higher Education and Training accredited research publication (ISSN 1684-4998).
·
Research Made Easy and Doing Research. The purpose
of this series is to provide hands-on and best practice solutions for
researchers to engage in the research process.
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Research monographs. The aim of this series
is to publish scholarly monographs in theoretical and applied research.
Technology and Innovation
The
Technology and Innovation unit, as an element of the Office for Research and
Innovation of the CUT, is primarily involved in the following spheres of
influence:
Technology Transfer
The
unit is responsible for the facilitation of the transfer of new technology,
irrespective of the field of application, to business and industry. A good
example of this activity is with respect to additive manufacturing technologies
– formerly known as rapid prototyping. The Centre for Rapid Prototyping and
Manufacturing (CRPM) embarked on a process of developing its infrastructure and
skills-base in this area about ten years ago, at a time when this was cutting
edge technology with only approximately three such machines in South Africa.
During this time CUT’s position in this field of specialization improved to
such an extent that it became the leader in terms of such technology in South Africa. This created a position where the rapid prototyping principles introduced by
CRPM to South Africa, became accepted by the local industry to such an extent
that there are approximately 200 such machines in South Africa at the moment,
whilst the utilization of such is starting to have a very important impact on the
local prototyping and manufacturing economy. Revolutionary technology was
accessed by CUT and subsequently introduced and spun out – hence transferred –
by this unit to the South African manufacturing community. The same principle
holds true for new product development processes under the auspices of the
Product Development Technology Station (PDTS).
Innovation
The
ideal would be for completed research by CUT researchers to be commercialized
in the form of new inventions. Hence, the Technology and Innovation unit is
supporting staff and students with the protection of intellectual property and
by providing incubation facilities and commercialization support. This normally
takes place by incubation on campus in the institutional incubation facility,
but also off-campus through the formation of a so-called virtual incubator. In
many cases entrepreneurs are also technically supported through structures such
as the Product Development Technology Station.
There
are two primary goals in addition to the commercialization of completed
research that CUT is striving for in terms of innovation, namely support with
the establishment of new enterprises by Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises (SMME’s)
- both on and off campus - and assistance to corporate entities with the
development of new products and processes. Lastly the unit is also taking part,
on behalf of CUT, in the support of the Free State Provincial Government’s
Regional Innovation Centre with the aim of improving the standard of living of
the inhabitants of the province.
In
particular, the following units report to the Director: Technology and
Innovation:
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Incubator: Support is provided to
staff, students and new start-up enterprises or SMME’s – that might, or might
not be making use of the services of CRPM or PDTS - with respect to the formal
establishment of viable enterprises, development of products for
commercialization and assistance with the identification of funding mechanisms
to support such endeavours. Available knowledge with respect to the commercialization
and funding of innovation is availed in the interest of the CUT and regional
economic development in general. These activities include renting of office
space in the Science Park Incubator to new start-up enterprises in an attempt
to the launch of new enterprises. These entities are accommodated for a maximum
period of three years, bearing in mind that the preferred nature of business
activities in the incubator is in the field of high-technology and innovation.
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CRPM: The Centre for Rapid
Prototyping and Manufacturing provides support to industry with the development
of prototypes and additive manufacturing activities on a commercial basis. It
also supports research activities in the Faculty of Engineering.
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PDTS: The Product
Development Technology Station is a Government-funded initiative to support
SMME’s with the development of new products, as well as introducing them to new
product development processes.
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Fablab: The Fablab provides
the opportunity for learners and other people with similar needs, to become au
fait with modern manufacturing techniques and technologies. Using these they
can produce models of potential innovations and determine its viability.
·
MDIP: It is hoped that MRC
funding will become available for the establishment of a Medical Device
Innovation Platform at CUT. This entity will function under the auspices of the
Technology and Innovation unit – especially with respect to financial and
administrative issues.

Library and
Information Services
In pursuit of the broader vision of CUT and to accomplish the
strategic goals of its mission the Library and Information Services (LIS) will
take leadership position to provide the information resources, technological
platform, study space and information skills necessary to attain excellence in
CUT endeavours.
LIS goals
·
Teaching and learning; provision and promotion of access to
comprehensive and up-to-date information tailored for CUT programmes to
maintain high student throughput.
·
Information skills; development of academic information skills
for students and staff to foster ‘access and success’ and evolve a culture of
independent and life long learning.
·
Research; offer high quality information resources that will
enhance and sustain the research capacity of CUT at all levels.
·
Information and Communication Technology; adoption of
state-of-the-art technologies to ensure that CUT remains in the forefront of managing
information, create gateways to global information and develop institutional
digital repository.
·
Infrastructure; maintenance, upgrading and modernisation LIS building
and facilities for all categories of clients, including the disabled, to create a
conducive environment for learning, teaching, research, communication and leisure.
·
Partnership; forge partnerships with communities of practice and
collaborate with other institutions at local, regional, national and
international levels in sharing information resources and expertise.
·
Quality control and assurance; comply with institutional,
national and international standards in the management of information
resources, provide high standards of service and ensure cost effectiveness and
efficiency in LIS operations.
Collection development section
This is a centralized section intended to manage the procurement
of library resources in print and electronic format for all campuses. The unit
is responsible for identifying suppliers of library resources and place orders
for materials as required. Key activities include ensuring that that CUT get
the “best value for money,’ maintain customer relationships, check that the
‘right’ materials are supplied, follow up on orders not delivered, handling of
invoices, maintain a database of library transactions, monitoring and control
of library book budget and liaising with the purchasing department and
academics on material purchases.
Cataloguing section
The purpose of this section is to develop and maintain metadata
of the LIS resources. This is done by creating and downloading of bibliographic
records onto the library Innopac system. Ultimately these records serve as
access points of available library resources in print and electronic media.
This is a highly specialized outfit in which quality assurance and strict adherence
to national and international standards are paramount to proper functioning of
the section. Mistakes made could lead to corruption of data and may render the
library catalogue ineffective in identifying or keeping track of library
resources. Other responsibilities include upgrading of catalogue, processing of
acquired documents, stocktaking and weeding of materials. This is yet another
centralized service for all campuses.
Information Section
The responsibilities of this section are two fold. In the first
place the section ensures that staff and students have the necessary knowledge
and skills to make better use of LIS resources. A key driver to administer this
scheme is the Personal Information management (PIM) programme. PIM is an
information literary programme structured to enable students to identify
information needs, retrieve, use, and evaluate information from a variety of
sources. This programme is critical to resource based learning as it seek to
promote critical thinking, independent learning and academic writing styles. Computer
labs are purposely designed for training. The second part of this section
concentrates on providing information services for researchers especially
academics and post graduate students. Information services offered include
in-depth information searches on specific study areas. Searches extend beyond
resources available at CUT and often include use of full text database of
international repute. Interlibrary lending services are also offered in this
section.
Circulations Section
This section is responsible for managing lending services and
clients’ relationships. The Circulations section is responsible for issuing of
library materials ensuring that materials are returned in time and maintained
in usable state. Other activities include keeping record of material
transactions of library clients, sending reminders to return material, issuing
notices/and charging for overdue materials. The Circulations section also
maintains the database of clients, issue personnel and student cards, handles
general enquiries in the library and manages study space and book shelves. A
limited collection of ‘Reserved Materials’ is also managed by the Circulations
department.
Systems Development Section
Systems Development is a centralised service that has three parts:
·
The first relates to maintenance of the Innopac library system.
Innopac is an integrated library software tool, used to manage all the
cataloguing, acquisitions, circulations programmes of the library. The Systems
office liaises with service providers and heads of service sections to handle
maintenance and upgrades. This office is also responsible for trouble shooting
and updates library management on new developments on the software.
·
The second part of the section deals with management of the Electronic
Resources Access Centre (ERAC). Located on the second floor of the library
building, the ERAC facility provides access to electronic resources via the
Internet, e-Thuto, as well as access to the Microsoft Office applications.
·
The third part is directed at managing the subscriptions to the
various electronic resources the LIS subscribes to. The electronic resources
include databases, electronic journals and electronic books. Next to this
process is the maintenance of the LIS website which is used as a tool to make
above-mentioned resources accessible to the LIS clients, as well as to publicise
library resources and alert clients to new developments and important links to
useful information.