Preparatory phase in full swing at SAPRI – Positions available
SAPRI – Transforming, Consolidating and Strengthening Polar Sciences
Four new positions are available as part of the SAPRI professional development acceleration program which ties in with the SAPRI transformation drive. These positions are not the integrated facility coordinator positions, but they are growth positions within each IF. The South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) is a research platform funded by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and managed by the National Research Foundation (NRF). SAEON is mandated to establish and manage long-term environmental observatories; maintain reliable long-term environmental data sets; promote access to data for research and/or informed decision-making; and contribute to capacity building. These positions are supported by the DSI’s South African Polar Research Infrastructure (SAPRI) programme.
From SAPRI Proposal: “South Africa is in dire need of transformation and capacity development within the polar science community. A key aspect of the uniqueness of South African Antarctic science is that it is the only African country involved on the Antarctic continent, and therefore has a leadership role to play in promoting African Antarctic science. Whereas SAPRI represents the transformation of an existing system and a new way of doing, the issue of transformation along demographic criteria is pertinent for SAPRI. The SAPRI needs to develop young black and / or female scientists, technicians and engineers. Antarctic research should not only be a workspace for those who study environmental science, but also attainable to those who study engineering, social sciences, creative arts, journalism, law, finance and management. SAPRI will promote the multidisciplinary nature of research possibilities in the Antarctic sphere, expanding our reach, our research footprint and the diversity of our community.”
Research Coordinator – Data, Products and Society
Research Coordinator – Oceans and Atmosphere
Research Coordinator – Polar Lab
Research Coordinator – Terrestrial
Please note SAEON/SAPRI has some data curator, ocean modelling and Senior IT systems administrator positions open, all of them can be found here.
It is important to note firstly that these are not pure academic/science positions but the aim is to train people in a broader scope of work, although there is a science component; secondly, the candidates do not have to have experience in the Southern Ocean/polar field but they do need to have experience in the relevant field.
Job opportunities available on 
BIOGRIP comprises four research ‘nodes’ based at the Universities of Cape Town (focusing on isotope biogeochemistry), Stellenbosch (water and soil biogeochemistry), Free State (mineral biogeochemistry) and North-West University (atmospheric biogeochemistry), with the administrative ‘hub’ located at UCT. The 
“Biogeochemistry” is the study of how biological, geological, chemical, and physical processes interact to shape natural environments over time and space. It covers a range of interdisciplinary research foci, from the origin and diversification of life, to how anthropogenic drivers alter modern environments, to the response of natural systems to environmental change. Biogeochemistry was identified by the 2016 South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR) document as an emerging interdisciplinary field of strategic importance. SARIR recommends that the central objective of biogeochemical research in South Africa should be to gain “further insight into the interactions of human activity and the environment over the past several hundred millennia and to determine how the environmental impact of anthropogenic activity has contributed to the change in Earth system dynamics (chemical, physical and biological). This includes the search for an understanding of the behavior of well characterized and emerging pollutants and their current impact on the environment”. There are a number of strong research groups in South Africa already investigating various aspects of this broad research objective, but their efforts to-date have been isolated and/or fragmented. Moreover, biogeochemistry requires high precision data and measurements of a vast range of inorganic and organic chemical components, including isotope ratios and trace elements, some of which cannot currently be made in South Africa and many of which cannot be run at the volume and quality required. The investment in BIOGRIP will provide the platform to drive biogeochemical knowledge creation through investment in (1) technical capacity, training and scientific leadership in biogeochemical research, (2) world-class analytical facilities, and (3) improved monitoring of biogeochemical environmental variables through the generation and compilation of statistically meaningful datasets.
BIOGRIP will provide significant opportunities to advance South Africa’s research infrastructure and technical capacity in the field of biogeochemistry, while also facilitating a high level of scientific impact on a range of temporal and spatial scales. BIOGRIP will extend the practical research questions that address specific South African problems to include those that are purely curiosity-driven, creative, and/or risky, while also deepening the extent to which ongoing research themes can be probed. An additional impact of developing analytical capacity in-country is the potential for creative methods development, particularly South African-specific applications (e.g., for research questions relevant to the Cape floristic kingdom, hominin evolution, water availability and quality, Antarctic ecosystems, etc.). This will allow the South African research community to push the frontiers of knowledge in a variety of fields where biogeochemical techniques have yet to be applied (or have yet to be applied at the resolution offered by BIOGRIP).
The group facilitates coordinated and standardized observational studies of major physical, chemical and biological variables including their drivers and interactions. This refers to a regional but also a circum-Antarctic approach. The WS-DML WG will contribute to an increase in quality of the science output and strengthen the awareness of the relevance of research in the WS-DML sector of the Southern Ocean through international projects contributing to the 
