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16 July 2010
At a ceremony held at the Farm Inn East of Pretoria, the SANBio Network Director, Prof. Luke Mumba, was awarded the Biosciences Management Excellence Award for 2010 in recognition of his contributions to the successful establishment and implementation of the NEPAD Agency /Southern Africa Network for Biosciences (SANBio) in the SADC region.
At the African Ministerial Council on Science and Technology conference in 2003 it was agreed to establish four regional networks in Africa under the auspices of NEPAD Office of Science and Technology in order to strengthen the continental science and technology development agenda.
In 2006 Prof. Luke Mumba joined NEPAD as the first Director for the regional network in Southern Africa, SANBio. Under his management and leadership, SANBio has grown to a very successful network in Africa and is well known in European countries like Belgium, Finland, Italy, Netherlands, and Sweden. It is not easy to acquire grant funding, but Prof. Mumba has secured more than R50 million over the past twelve months. This funding is being utilised to build capacity in the region to ensure that Southern Africa contributes to the global pool of scientific knowledge and technological innovations; and to bring new innovation bioscience-related products in the market by capitalising on the expertise in the region.
One of the programmes under his leadership is the well known Finnish-Southern Africa Partnership Programme to Strengthen SANBio (BioFISA). Currently this programme is supporting eight research projects in twelve member countries in the region namely; Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Prof. Mumba has grown his staff complement at the SANBio Secretariat hosted at the CSIR Biosciences to five in 2009 and has established functional country focal points in all SANBio member countries. He is an excellent manager and is well respected in the science community both within and outside Africa.
"... Congratulations with being awarded the Biosciences Management Excellence Award for 2010. You are a deserving winner! ..." A letter from the CSIR Biosciences Executive Director to Prof. Mumba reads.
The ceremony was officiated by Dr Thulani Dlamini, CSIR Group Executive: Research and Development. Others in attendance included the Executive Director of CSIR Biosciences, Dr Joe Molete, other senior CSIR management staff, researchers, support staff and members of staff of the SANBio Secretariat.
Prof. Mumba attributes the Award to all support and encouragement he enjoys from the SANBio Steering Committee, NEPAD Office of Science and Technology, Management of CSIR Biosciences, SANBio stakeholders both within and outside the region, and above all the team spirit and hard work of his colleagues at the SANBio Secretariat. "I would like to thank the management of CSIR Biosciences for recognising our modest achievement. It gives us the drive and the energy to do more", he concludes.
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