Global S&T Nerve Centre locates at the Hub

Dr Reinie Biesenbach (above) and Cynthia Malan (below) man the GRA Nerve Centre, now located in the Innovation Centre at The Innovation Hub.

The Global Research Alliance (GRA) - a global knowledge pool of expertise in science and technology - has located its management office, called the GRA Nerve Centre, to the Innovation Centre at The Innovation Hub.

Comprised of nine knowledge-intensive science and technology organisations around the world the GRA draws on unmatched expertise from 70 000 staff and provides networked access to a multitude of worldwide resources. This includes more than 40 000 scientists, engineers and support staff sensitive to multi-cultural and regional challenges.

Established in 2002 in response to the United Nations' Millennium Development Goals for the year 2015, the GRA - as a global alliance - can pool the resources that enable members to address problems that would be beyond the reach of any single organisation.

The GRA Nerve Centre is the coordinating centre for the Alliance. It provides support services the foundation members, serves as a contact point for all networking and project initiatives, and actively markets and publicises Alliance activities.

The foundation members - nine leading international science and technology institutions from developed and developing countries - are CSIR India, the Danish Technological Institute, the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft in Germany, SIRIM Berhad in Malaysia, TNO in The Netherlands, the Technical Research Centre of Finland, CSIRO in Australia, the Battelle Memorial Institute in the United States and CSIR South Africa.

The GRA has identified the 'digital divide', energy, health, transportation and water as the five most important research areas in which to facilitate cooperation on international R&D projects towards achieving the millennium development goals.

Read more about the Alliance on their website at www.research-alliance.net.

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