Building the next generation of South African scientists

A recent issue carried a most interesting suite of articles, demonstrating the success of the Royal Society/National Research Foundation programme in helping to build a new generation of South African scientists, ‘as ageing researchers retire and retention and new blood become increasingly important’. The NRF’s overview of the programme (‘Reaching out to the world’1 ) correctly points out that ‘South Africa needs excellent science and far more scientists, drawing on the research potential of the entire population.