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Johan's monthly comment: SAEON grows capacity and gears up to establish final two nodes
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- By Johan Pauw, Head of SAEON
SAEON's in-house scientific capacity is growing steadily and will soon
include five PhDs. This has been complemented by the appointment of two
data managers. Equally significant is that by May the education
outreach staff should be three in number.
These developments are significant for SAEON's ability to deliver on its core objectives of observation, information and education, and more generally to play a critical national role in building the SAEON network.
SAEON to fast track product delivery
At a planning meeting in mid-March, the leadership of SAEON spent two full days vigorously contemplating a range of issues such as business plans for SAEON in general and the existing nodes specifically, an overarching science plan for SAEON, bringing more science into the education outreach programme, data ethics, data agreements and project registration, international collaboration and the next SAEON Summit.
SAEON scientists are in discussion with a wide range of peers and stakeholders to fast track the delivery of products based on existing data. These were reviewed during the planning meeting. Readers will be kept informed of progress made with the various projects through this newsletter.
Node for Grasslands, Forests and Wetlands
Following consultation with the Grassland Society, a SAEON task team
has recommended the establishment of a node for Grasslands, Forests and
Wetlands in Pietermaritzburg to be hosted by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and
to be developed in close collaboration with the University of
KwaZulu-Natal. The task team's recommendation must still be reviewed by
SAEON's Technical Steering Committee and Advisory Board before work can
start on the organisation of the Node.
Node for Arid Lands
In April, another SAEON task team will visit four potential
organisations willing to host the node for Arid Lands after earlier
consultation with the Arid Zone Ecology Forum was indecisive. A
comprehensive report prepared by the North-West University will serve
to inform the task team.
SAEON Summit papers
Authors of the twenty-odd SAEON Summit papers that were submitted to SAEON for review can rest assured that their papers have been placed in the good hands of Prof Mike Berger, associate editor of the SA Journal of Science. Mike will work with the authors to produce papers consistent with the quality of this definitive international publication.
The process to appoint new members on the SAEON Technical Steering Committee and Advisory Board is ongoing and the first meetings of the year will take place during May-June in time to consider the recommendations of the above-mentioned task teams on the establishment of the final two SAEON nodes.
