Research capacity development of individuals at three South African university research centres

Abstract

In South Africa, there has been recognition of the need for increasing research capacity at South African universities and within the national science system. Furthermore there has been a need to address imbalances in the racial and gender profile of researchers. There has been a growth of application-oriented, multidisciplinary research centres at South African universities in response to changing national and international knowledge contexts. Many research centres have a research capacity development component and run postgraduate programmes in collaboration with academic departments. This it was relevant to investigate what types of contexts these centres provide for research capacity development and postgraduate education. In this study, individual research capacity development was examined as a process of identity formation and socialisation through social, organisational and epistemological lenses.