About us

Purpose

The UCT Knowledge Co-op provides a channel for external constituencies to access knowledge, skills, resources and professional expertise within the university. At the same time it provides an opportunity for academics and students to engage with society and address the needs of communities.

Background

For a long time, staff and students at the University of Cape Town have worked with community partners to address a range of development challenges. Yet groups outside the university have often struggled to access this expertise.

The UCT Knowledge Co-op aims to make it easier for community groups to approach the university with ideas and requests for joint projects. At the same time it offers students and staff the opportunity to apply their knowledge to real-world issues.

The two-year pilot project is part of the INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE SHOP NETWORK, and supports UCT's mission to address SOUTH AFRICA'S DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES through SOCIALLY RESPONSIVE research.

How it works

For community groups

Send us your ideas for a project. The UCT Knowledge Co-op will then try to find the best qualified staff and students to help you. Projects can include research, evaluation and practical support. Students will be supervised by academic staff.

The Knowledge Co-op will work with you and university staff and students to decide on the project objectives, approach and time frames, as well as your respective roles and responsibilities. The project will draw on both the academic resources of the university and your local knowledge and expertise. The UCT Knowledge Co-op will support both partners throughout the process from initial planning to the delivery of the final product. While students will need to produce an academic paper, which will be shared with you, we will clarify what other product would be useful for you. This could be in the form of a research summary, a poster or policy brief, a workshop to discuss the findings or a design.

All products will be posted on the Co-op website so that others can make use of them.

See COMMUNITY GROUPS for more information on how you can get involved or TALK TO US.

For UCT staff & students

Academics or students can choose from a list of TOPICS submitted by community partners. In the case of students, this may become the topic for their dissertation, which will be conducted under the supervision of an academic supervisor, who in turn may use it as case material for future research. Projects may also involve service learning or experiential training initiatives. Either way, we endeavour, in addition to meeting the requirements for an academic qualification, to produce some product which is of direct use to the community partner, for example a research summary, a poster or policy brief, a workshop to discuss the findings or a design.

The Knowledge Co-op will assist throughout the process and help potential partners to clarify their objectives, approach, respective responsibilities and timeframes for the project. In each case, the project will draw on the local knowledge and expertise of community partners as well as the academic resources of the university. The UCT Knowledge Co-op will assist throughout the process until the final products have been completed.