Faculty of Health Science

University of Witwatersrand (Wits) sustains an impressive research output and is committed to providing quality training to postgraduate students as a means of ensuring a continuing supply of active and motivated researchers. Wits proudly hosts 40 research entities, comprising nine institutes, 19 research units and 12 research groups. Eight of the 40 entities are Medical Research Council units.

The Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) at the University of the Witwatersrand is a research intensive Faculty. This is evidenced by the high quality research emanating from the Faculty’s 20 Research Entities and the many individuals undertaking relevant and applied research in a number of important fields.

In 2008, the Centre for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine at Wits was officially inaugurated as the first FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence in Africa, only one of six such centres in the world.

Wits’ Faculty of Health Sciences produces at least one third of the specialists and most of the subspecialists in South Africa.

Much of the research effort is directed towards serious problems that affect our local communities, such as HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria. In addition, being a diverse Faculty, research is also being undertaken in the fields of oral health sciences, therapeutic sciences and drug delivery, as well as in the basic sciences.          
In addition to supporting research, the Faculty also provides excellent support and training for postgraduate students. This training assists postgraduate students with developing their scientific competencies in an intellectually stimulating environment.

School of Public Health
The School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand co-leads with the African Population Health Research Center in Nairobi the Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa, CARTA

CARTA’s overarching goal is to build a vibrant African academy able to lead world-class multidisciplinary research that makes a positive impact on public and population health.

CARTA aims to promote health and development in Africa by fostering multidisciplinary research hubs at African universities; facilitate high-quality research on policy-relevant priority issues; build networks of locally-trained internationally recognized scholars; and enhance the capacity of African universities to lead globally-competitive research and training programs.

This will be achieved by initiating a model doctoral training program with strong supervision and mentoring components; strengthening infrastructure, skills and faculty commitment to lead and manage research initiatives within African institutions; and creating environments at African universities that facilitate and motivate researchers so as to retain skilled researchers within the region.

Strategic Objectives
To support institutional capacity of participating African universities to conduct high-quality research by improving research infrastructure, strengthening project development and grant-writing skills, enhancing research management and administration, and establishing appropriate policies and incentives to enhance research productivity. To strengthen doctoral training in Africa to enhance the local production of well trained researchers and scholars. This will be achieved through the creation of a regional multidisciplinary PhD training and supervisory program in population
and public health. To produce a critical mass of high-quality graduates trained to address the complex issues surrounding health and development in Africa.

Activities
1. Short courses in supervision, library support, grant-writing, and research management:

• Mentoring of faculty and other university staff through their participation in Joint Advanced Seminar (JAS) curriculum development workshops and co-facilitating the JAS.
• Mentoring PhD supervisors through pairing experienced with new supervisors.
• Building physical research infrastructure.
• Facilitating the development of coherent and policy-relevant research agendas.
• Supporting institutionalization of JAS curriculum by ensuring that doctoral students and staff from participating universities contribute to their home institutions by running seminars following each JAS.

2. Interdisciplinary multi-country cross institutional PhD program:

• Annual joint advanced seminars to equip cohorts of doctoral students from participating African universities with strong conceptual, technical, analytical, writing, leadership and professional skills.
• Create a culture of collaborative research among student cohorts by facilitating contact among them as well as between them and global experts; increasing their exposure to current debates and literature in the range of fields relevant to public and population health; and support their participation in scientific meetings to enhance networking and decrease professional isolation.
• Consolidate research skills through post-doctoral fellowships and/or re-entry research grants.

Collaborators and Contributions
CARTA brings together nine academic and four research institutions from West, East, Central, and Southern Africa and selected northern partners to revitalize and develop research capacity in Africa.

Some of the aforementioned academic partners include Makerere University in Uganda, National University of Rwanda, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The Research Institutes include the African Population & Health Research Center (APHRC) and the KEMRI/Wellcome Trust Research Programme, Kenya

Some of the Northern Partners are WHO Special Program for Training and Research in Tropical Diseases (TDR), the Swiss Tropical Institute, Switzerland and the University of Colorado, USA.

For more info about the Faculty of Health Sciences, visit the following website: www.wits.ac.za/health or email healthpg@health.wits.ac.za