ICSU RCA 13th Meeting Feedback
The RCA members deliberated and took decisions on a number of issues that included ICSU ROA budget for the 2013/14 financial year, the implementation of past and future planned activities of ICSU ROA, the activities of the Office with the ICSU Family as well as with ICSU ROA partners and other science networks on the continent. Via Skype, Steven Wilson updated the Committee on issues related to ICSU’s Rio+20 conference involvement as well as progress on the implementation of the Future Earth initiative and the Sida proposal that is being implemented by all the three ICSU Regional Offices.One of the major decisions taken during the meeting was the approval of the African School Series programme by the RCA.
This programme will focus on offering Africa’s students and young scientists transformative experiences in science, engineering and technology applications on the continent. The 13th RCA Meeting was preceded by a one day workshop that was co-organised by ICSU ROA and the NRF (the host institution of the Office). The workshop was held at Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO), a facility of the NRF, about 60 km west of Pretoria. This event was meant to provide a platform for the RCA members to interact with scientists from South African research and academic institutions. Presentations included those on HartRAO, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, ACCESS (Applied Centre for Climate and Earth Systems Science) and iTHEMBA Lab’s institutional African partnerships and programmes.


