Trained in demography, Prof Nicol is an NRF-rated scientist with expertise in health systems research, focusing on routine health information systems (RHIS) and HIV prevention and care. He is an Extraordinary Associate Professor at Stellenbosch University’s Global Health Department and serves on several advisory committees, including WHO AFRO’s Regional Immunization Technical Advisory Group (RITAG), SAMRC’s Human Research Ethics Committee, and South Africa’s National Health Information System of South Africa Committee. He has previously served as a member of the WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) Working Group on quality and use of global immunization and surveillance data.

As Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-PI, he leads several CDC/PEPFAR-, WHO-, and NRF-funded studies, including the study on "Strengthening Health Systems' Capacity (SHeS’Cap) for Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) and Enhancing Linkage to HIV Care in Adolescent Girls and Young Women and Men in South Africa." He also served as South African’s PI for the recently concluded WHO/Health Data Collaborative (HDC) study on "Making the case for investing in Routine Health Information Systems (RHIS) to achieve the health-related SDGs."

His research interests include HIV prevention and care, health system strengthening, evaluation of health programmes, health information systems, electronic medical records, and data quality improvement.