Page 134 - SAMRC Annual Report 2024-2025

as the UJ Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and International exposure: PACER, UJ and University
Innovation Designate (1 Oct -31 Dec 2024) and
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Innovation
(I Jan 2025 to date); and was declared Faculty of
Health Sciences Living Legend in September 2024.
The awards attracted a lot of media attention
including a media statement released issued by
SAMRC after receiving the Lifetime Achiever and
Trailblazer Awards from HERS-SA at the 2024 Higher
Education Women Leaders Awards (HEWLA).
Building Capacity Through
Training, Mentorship, and Support
Supervision: PACER has 12 PhD (Public Health),
17 MPH students and one postdoctoral research
fellow (PDRF) from designated groups who are being
supervised. This contributes to the transformation
agenda, National Development Plan 2030 and UN
Sustainable Development Goals 2030.
PACER delegation at the University of
South Carolina.
132 SAMRC ANNUAL REPOR T 2024-25
of South Carolina, has supported 17 postgraduate
students and staff, to present their work at the 6th
National Big Data Health Sciences Conference,
Columbia (10-19 Feb 2025). Additionally, 12
postgraduate students were supported by PACER
to present their research at the World Congress of
Epidemiology, Cape Town (24-27 Sept 2024).
Capacity-building workshops: The postgraduate
students including MPH, PhD and PDRF completed
>45 UJ postgraduate school and external
stakeholders' capacity-building workshops/seminars.
Postgraduate scholarships: PACER secured seven
supervisor-linked, three UJ Global Excellence
Stature, one SAMRC scholarship, and one UJ Merit
bursary for postgraduate students from designated
groups contributing to equitable scholarship
through meeting educational needs.
Science Outreach: PACER staff and postgraduate
students are actively involved in the mentorship
of young scientists at the Eskom Expo for Young
Scientists, providing support and leadership on
health-related projects.
Recognitions of emerging scientists: PACER
Research Manager/Specialist Scientist as well as
PhD Students received Recognition Awards from
the UJ Faculty of Health Sciences, Department
of Environmental Health, 2024. Dr Edith Phalane:
Emerging Researcher with Exceptional Leadership
Potential; Mr Musa Jaiteh: The Most Progressive
Doctoral Student in PACER; Ms. Betty Sebati: Most
Networked Student in PACER; Ms Lucia Olifant:
Extra mile Award.
Navigating the Impact of US
Executive Orders on Funding
The collaboration with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health (JHSPH) on the "Harnessing
Big Heterogeneous Data to evaluate the potential
impact of HIV responses among key populations
in Generalized Epidemic Settings in Sub-Saharan
Africa" might be limited as they used an NIH grant
to support PACER's work. However, the grant was
wholly used by the JHSPH, no sub-contract was
signed with PACER.