Overview
The Marion Island research station is managed and administered by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).
The Marion Island research station is managed and administered by the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE).
The South African Polar Research Infrastructure (SAPRI) is one of 13 large Research Infrastructures (RIs) developed by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) as part of the South African Research Infrastructure Roadmap (SARIR).
The SAPRI was established in 2021 to ensure coordination of South African marine and Antarctic research as a national Big Science programme, providing seamless access to existing and new research infrastructure required to develop and enhance long-term observations of South Africa’s polar region.
The ultimate objective of SAPRI is to enable balanced research growth across the polar disciplines, and to maintain and further expand the world-class long-term observational datasets already established.
The SAPRI is designed as a consortium hosted at the South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) and is divided into four Integrated Facilities (IFs):
Vision
Mission
The vision of SAPRI is to enable balanced and transformed research growth across the multiplicity of marine and polar disciplines, and to maintain and further expand the world-class, long-term observational research infrastructure and datasets already established within South African polar and oceanographic research. This will benefit the governmental strategies for Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands and assist decision makers to formulate appropriate environmental policies that lessen the risk and vulnerability of global climate change on the regions which impact South Africa, but also which South Africa are custodian to.
The SAPRI mission is to transform the access to, and perception of, South African polar research for technicians, engineers, scientists of all disciplines, learners and students, government, private business and civil society and to further accelerate the implementation of the pan-African Science, Technology and Innovation agenda. In doing so, SAPRI will create a co-designed, sustainable and responsive Research Infrastructure which produces Big Science stimulating innovative research and Intellectual Property generation that is of global relevance, and services the needs of all.
Vision
The vision of SAPRI is to enable balanced and transformed research growth across the multiplicity of marine and polar disciplines, and to maintain and further expand the world-class, long-term observational research infrastructure and datasets already established within South African polar and oceanographic research. This will benefit the governmental strategies for Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands and assist decision makers to formulate appropriate environmental policies that lessen the risk and vulnerability of global climate change on the regions which impact South Africa, but also which South Africa are custodian to.
Mission
The SAPRI mission is to transform the access to, and perception of, South African polar research for technicians, engineers, scientists of all disciplines, learners and students, government, private business and civil society and to further accelerate the implementation of the pan-African Science, Technology and Innovation agenda. In doing so, SAPRI will create a co-designed, sustainable and responsive Research Infrastructure which produces Big Science stimulating innovative research and Intellectual Property generation that is of global relevance, and services the needs of all.