University of Cape Town (UCT)-Bristol Collaboration Programme

The Universities of Cape Town and Bristol have created a collaboration programme to promote academic cooperation within jointly agreed strategic areas of interest and more widely. The Fellowships and Professorships awarded have ambitious objectives and demonstrable importance to relevant academic fields, providing opportunities for engagement and longer-term collaboration across the universities and their wider communities. Fellows spend 6 months over 2 years at UCT, and Professors spend 12 months over 3 years at UCT.

The programme is underpinned by the Africa Charter, which was launched in July 2023 and which aims to articulate the principles, goals and guiding frameworks for a transformed mode of research partnerships between Africa and the Global North.

Research themes

Three research themes were jointly identified to provide a strategic focus for the collaborations. These were chosen on the basis of a deep commitment to social justice, complementary strengths at both institutions and areas where there is already good collaboration to build on.

  • Hidden histories

There is interest in the fact that the cities of Bristol and Cape Town both have histories and legacies of involvement in slavery that are generally not made visible. This situation sits within a broader context in which the histories of colonised people - and the continuing impact on their descendants today - are often hidden. UCT and Bristol are committed to producing critical histories that make visible the often invisible, and challenge the historical narrative of the powerful. The production of hidden histories can inform our research and knowledge practices, including our education.

  • Climate change impacts and opportunities for health

People who are most impacted by climate change are often most disadvantaged in terms of their health: climate change disproportionately affects the health of people already vulnerable to illness and who have least access to healthcare. Research has potential to identify how climate change impacts on health and to identify solutions that can reduce the impact of climate change on health and improve health outcomes, including at the city scale. Researchers and funders are increasingly aware of the urgent need to address climate change and health, and UCT and Bristol each conduct world-leading research led by renowned groups and institutes in these areas. Through collaboration, research on climate change and health will have even greater global impact, including on awareness, practice and policy.

  • Environmental and social sustainability

Vast social inequalities exist between and within nations and at the sub national scale. Social justice demands that investments and governance changes are made that level the playing field. However, doing so requires the use of the earth’s natural resources, which are rapidly depleting. The challenge is therefore to meet the aspirations of human progress and economic development while keeping within the limits of planetary boundaries. Research in this area is therefore critical and encompasses a broad range of fields in which UCT and Bristol have complementary strengths, including (but not limited to) poverty and inequality, educational access, energy use and conservation, waste water and water quality and biodiversity and natural resources.

Additional themes available to Bristol and UCT Fellows:

  • Bristol Fellows could also align to one of Bristol's strategic priority areas:
    • Equitable and sustainable health outcomes;
    • Net zero and climate change;
    • The creative and cultural industries;
      • with underpinning themes of data and digitalization, and social justice.
  • UCT Fellows could also align to one of UCT's Grand Challenges:
    • Building a healthy Africa
    • Resource efficiency and nature-basefd solutions for sustainable development
    • Advancing Africa
    • Our southern location
    • On being human.

Meet the award holders

Dr Ailish Craig, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol

  • Characterising and communicating climate information for climate resilient decision making in the health sector in southern African cities (hosted by Ms Alice McClure, Environmental and Geographical Sciences, UCT)

Dr James Duminy, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol

  • Life-course cities: planning for long-term human health and wellbeing in the Anthropocene (hosted by Associate Professor Andrew Tucker, African Centre for Cities, UCT)

Dr Eyob Gebremariam, Perivoli Africa Research Centre, University of Bristol

  • A comparative study on the multiple layers of power imbalances in scientific knowledge production: the case of public health in Ethiopia and South Africa (hosted by Associate Professor Divine Fuh, Institute for Humanities in Africa, UCT)

Professor Susan Parnell, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol

  • Mobilising sustainable global alternatives through African cities (hosted by Professor Edgar Pieterse, African Centre for Cities, UCT; and Professor Frank Eckardt, Environmental and Geographical Sciences, UCT)

Professor Leon Tikly, School of Education, University of Bristol

  • Transforming knowledge and research for just and sustainable futures in Africa (hosted by Professor Azeem Badroodien, Education, UCT)

Please refer to the UCT website [link] for information on the UCT award holders.