With the coordination of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf) working on behalf of the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa scientific community launched the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development last week.
So far, 50+ science entities, higher education institutions and schools from South Africa have officially committed to host events and activities to demonstrate that – through a basic understanding of mathematics, biology, physics and chemistry – actions can be taken to solve the many challenges we face as identified through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. It is only because of an understanding of the basic sciences that we can explore and apply science, such as in the medical field, engineering field, computational field and more.