Welcome to Research Matters

Research Matters shows how the University of Pretoria creates a world of answers by highlighting some of our most impactful and innovative research, all of which addresses society’s most pressing concerns in order to transform lives and communities.

As a leading research-intensive university in Africa, we are recognised internationally for our quality, relevance and impact. We develop people, create knowledge and strive to make a difference locally and internationally.

This site features curated content distributed across a variety of themes highlighting our research strengths and expertise. All our themes are presented in the broadest possible sense of the word, to encompass a wide range of our offerings. We believe that problems do not exist in silos, and so we use a cross-cutting range of disciplines to focus our research on solving these problems so that we have a positive impact on society. The result is that one might find a story included across multiple themes, as it addresses different aspects and issues.

When a story on a research topic has many facets, the individual facets relating to the main topic are conveniently housed on multiple pages, bracketed as stories for ease of reference. There are also tags for popular topics which can be used to navigate the site too.

Demystifying science and research offers society the opportunity to understand why research matters. We know that by understanding cutting-edge, future focused research and making the findings of knowledge accessible across different formats of content, we will have a positive impact on society.

Research Matters is meant to be used as a resource by a variety of audiences, and so members of the public and the media are free to use the stories and multimedia, provided that the University of Pretoria is duly credited. We hope that as you use this site, you will easily access a wealth of knowledge. Any queries about the terms of use of any of our material can be directed to our media relations office.