Published: 05-05-2026 11:52 | Updated: 05-05-2026 12:07

Late registration opportunity for SASUF+ AIMday

The virtual SASUF+ AIMday event, 26-27 May is approaching. The regular registration period has closed but there are around twenty challenges, several within the theme of Sustainable Health, for which it is still possible for late registration.

Challenges

Challenges
Theme	Challenge	Background information	Organisation
Sustainable Health	64. How can communities support orphans, elderly people, and people with disabilities who rely on pensions and struggle to stay on chronic medication due to lack of food?	We have orphans, elderly people and those living with disabilities in our community, they dependable on pension money. They are also on chronic medication which makes them to default on their medication because of lack of food.	LINZWA Foundation
Democracy, social justice and indigenous knowledge systems	71. How can the esports sector overcome challenges such as high equipment costs, poor internet infrastructure, load‑shedding, and limited investment to support sustainable industry growth?	Esports in in KZN faces significant challenges, including high costs for equipment, unreliable internet infrastructure, and frequent load-shedding. A lack of local investment, government support, and limited career longevity also hinder growth	KZN Esports Federation
Democracy, social justice and indigenous knowledge systems	32. How can research partnerships support municipalities in analysing the chemical and genetic profiles of local cannabis strains to enable indigenous knowledge holders to genotype, register, and develop internationally compliant pharmaceutical‑grade products?	The indigenous knowledge holders do not have registered strains that are accepted for international pharmaceutical grade commercial standards. The intent is to get research assistance towards genotyping and registering the strains and innovation products from the region.	Ncebzar Innovation Solutions
Green transition	83. How can scalable, innovative technologies be developed to prevent theft of critical infrastructure—amid rising copper prices—while ensuring the security and long‑term reliability of power, transport, and communication systems?	RS Corp has developed and patented a solution for the measurement and detection of cable theft in the rail industry. A pilot project implemented for PRASA in Cape Town (September 2024 – present) along a 20 km stretch from Strand to Eerste Rivier has successfully eradicated theft in the monitored area. The solution works by measuring power in the lines and gathering data, which also allows the identification of non-theft-related cable damage, such as train hookups or fires along the tracks.With enhanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration, this data can be further analyzed for predictive maintenance and pre-warning, improving overall infrastructure safety. There is also a need to explore reducing the solution’s form factor to provide a cost-effective monitoring system for smaller infrastructure assets such as streetlights, water pumps, and earthing cables, which are critical for public safety.RS Corp has also extended the technology to measure theft on non-energized conductors. This innovation, piloted in Durban from October 2025, allows for monitoring infrastructure that is dormant but operational at specific times, providing opportunities to reduce power consumption while maintaining theft protection.Additionally, the detection of lost or tampered earthing cables is a growing requirement. A compact monitoring solution will ensure protection against equipment damage from lightning, incorrect utility connections, and the risk of electric shock to people in the vicinity.	RSCorp
Democracy, social justice and indigenous knowledge systems	98. How can we develop robust methods to measure and demonstrate the societal impact of community-based sports initiatives aimed at preventing youth crime and promoting positive life pathways?	Community-based sports initiatives—such as Gränslös Fotboll—are built on the idea that sport can function as more than physical activity. They create safe spaces where young people, particularly those in vulnerable or underserved areas, can build relationships with positive role models, develop social and emotional skills, and experience a sense of belonging.Many of the participants in these initiatives face risk factors linked to youth crime, including social exclusion, lack of structured leisure time, limited access to supportive adults, and low future expectations. By offering consistent engagement, mentorship, and a value-based environment, these programs aim to redirect young people toward healthier and more constructive life pathways.Despite strong anecdotal evidence and positive local experiences, there remains a critical challenge: demonstrating measurable societal impact. Stakeholders such as municipalities, funders, and policymakers increasingly require robust evidence showing that these initiatives contribute to crime prevention, improved wellbeing, and long-term social outcomesThis makes the question of how to develop reliable and credible methods for measuring impact both timely and essential.	Sirius Fotboll
Green transition	61. How can the timber construction sector in South Africa change public perceptions and build trust so that timber is accepted as a mainstream building material?	Despite its environmental and performance benefits, timber is still widely perceived by end-users in South Africa as less durable, less safe, or inferior to conventional materials like concrete and steel. How can the timber construction sector effectively shift these perceptions and build trust among the public to support wider adoption of timber as a mainstream building material?	York Timbers Chair
Green transition	84. How can real‑world solutions be refined and tested to improve grid stability, integrate renewables, and manage peak and non‑essential loads—while protecting consumer equipment and supporting widespread EV adoption—to reduce reliance on costly, polluting peaking plants?	Background:Currently, base load electricity is supplied predominantly by coal or nuclear power due to their stable output, while peak demand often requires diesel generators. These generators are expensive, environmentally harmful, and inefficient. A more sustainable approach involves shifting the load of non-essential household appliances to off-peak times, thereby reducing reliance on peaking plants and improving grid stability.Integrating renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, into the grid is challenging due to their intermittent nature. Real-time management and optimization of energy loads can enable greater adoption of renewables while maintaining reliability. RS Corp has developed technologies that support grid stability through advanced solutions such as millisecond-level frequency trimming, protection of consumer equipment from surges and brownouts, and randomized reconnection of households after outages.This technology can also address challenges in regions with high adoption of electric vehicles, where grid strain is a growing concern. While these solutions are proven in principle, further refinement and testing in real-world conditions are necessary to optimize performance, enhance efficiency, and ensure seamless integration with both traditional and renewable energy sources.	RSCorp
Sustainable health	19. What policy and regulatory measures are needed to protect consumers from fraudulent or ineffective agro‑products while enabling the market uptake of scientifically validated biological alternatives?	With the increasing removal of chemical active ingredients from the market by regulatory bodies, and growing awareness of the health and environmental risks associated with certain actives in pesticides and fertilizers, consumers are being inundated with questionable product alternatives. These offerings are often fraudulent, misleading, or falsely marketed as legitimate agro-solutions. In reality, many are unproven, substandard, and ineffective.This poses a significant challenge for the industry. Companies that invest in developing science-backed, high-quality alternatives to conventional chemistry find their efforts undermined by inferior competitors.Sales are frequently eroded because consumers are not provided with the tools or information to be able to effectively assess the deluge of chemistry alternatives that are being widely marketed to them.As a result of the proliferation of subpar products, many reputable and effective biological solutions are being overlooked, due to factors such as erosion of consumer trust and perceptions of higher cost.	Andermatt PHP
Democracy, social justice and indigenous knowledge systems	78. How can strategic and operational challenges—particularly those faced by South African companies in entering and establishing a sustainable presence in the Swedish market—be translated into clear, problem driven questions that enable effective AIMday collaboration, and how can universities and their researchers provide targeted expertise and support to generate actionable, high impact solutions?	COSA Holding Ltd operates in an increasingly complex and competitive business environment characterised by rapid technological change, evolving customer expectations, cost pressures, and growing sustainability requirements. Like many organisations in South Africa, COSA faces the dual challenge of maintaining operational efficiency while simultaneously adapting to digital transformation and developing future-ready leadership capacity.At the same time, higher education institutions such as DUT Business School are under pressure to ensure that their teaching, research, and engagement activities are directly relevant to industry needs and contribute to solving real-world problems. However, there is often a gap between academic knowledge production and the immediate, practical challenges faced by industry partners.The SASUF AIMday model presents a structured platform to bridge this gap by bringing together academia and industry around clearly defined, problem-driven discussions. AIMday is designed to move beyond general collaboration toward focused engagement on specific business challenges, enabling organisations like COSA to access interdisciplinary expertise while allowing the university to align its research and postgraduate training with industry priorities.In this context, the key challenge is to effectively articulate and translate COSA Holding’s strategic and operational issues into well-defined problem statements that can be addressed through AIMday. Without this clarity, engagements risk remaining broad and exploratory, limiting their impact and reducing the potential for tangible outcomes such as applied research projects, student involvement, or executive development interventions.Therefore, the AIMday engagement between COSA Holding Ltd and DUT Business School seeks to create a structured interface where real business challenges are clearly defined, academically interrogated, and translated into actionable solutions that deliver value to both parties.	Cosa Holdings
Migration and urbanisation	13. Does money in your pocket make migrants safer?	Future Families has worked in the field of migrancy/refugees and asylum seekers for a number of years. We also have a focus on economic empowerment as an exit strategy for families who have been in the welfare system for many years and in a country with high unemployment. We are now bringing the two spheres of practice together. It would be good to have empiracal evidence to continue with such work. Looking at the implications of income and migrancy - are their children receiving better care if Mom has an income, are the risks of GBV reduced, is the money benefitting the local economy.	FUTURE FAMILIES
Sustainable Health	39. How can new interventions derived from natural products help address the growing challenge of drug‑resistant tuberculosis?	Currently, TB treatment is challenged by the emergence of drug resistant strains. It is necessary to search for new interventions from natural products	TB/HIV Care Programme, O.R. Tambo District Municipality
Green transition	51. How can cand Industrial hemp be efficiently converted into low‑cost biofuels to support South Africa’s 2027 blending mandate while enabling whole‑plant value chains for small‑scale farmers?	The mandatory blending of biofuels is coming to effect in 2027 and this will offer opportunities for small scale farmers to participate in the Biofuels value chains with feedstock that do not compete with food. Biofuels are being implemented as part of reducing emissions in road transport and as part of the climate change. CEF group has done the feedstock study that was finalised in March 2025, looking at more than 53 feedstock in SA. This included the Cannabis and Hemp feedstock as this is seen as perfect crop and it meets the company's decarbonisation roles. The challenge is developing the technologies to convert these to fuels and other value chains. The university can research this to develop the value chains at low cost implementable solutions. The main driver is to use the whole plant that will benefit the farmers and the offtakers.	Central Energy Fund
Democracy, social justice and indigenous knowledge systems	47. How can women‑owned construction SMMEs access the technical training, capital, and supplier support needed to accurately prepare tender documents, secure project funding, and successfully deliver awarded contracts?	We are the construction woman owned company. We have to hire someone for the calculations of our documents.When awarded the tender We cannot access to the capital or supplier of material	Lukho development Agency
Democracy, social justice and indigenous knowledge systems	40. How can agricultural high schools better connect their productive school‑based farming programmes with nearby institutional buyers to close the gap between local supply and local demand?	School agricultural programmes across the Eastern Cape produce fresh, quality producebut lack structured channels to reach nearby institutional buyers. Supply and demand exist in the same geography but remain disconnected. Meanwhile, institutional buyers—hospitals, school feeding schemes, community kitchens, and clinics—have consistent procurement needs but no reliable local sourcing mechanism.	MMX FOUNDATION
Sustainable Health	80. How can a collaborative, evidence‑based partnership between health organisations, practitioners, and student leadership be designed to increase HIV and TB testing uptake, strengthen preventive practices, and sustain meaningful student engagement with measurable health outcomes?	KwaZulu Natal remains disproportionately affected by HIV and tuberculosis (TB), with high infection rates among young adults. While the provincial health system manages approximately 1.5 million people on antiretroviral therapy (ART), over 200,000 individuals have disengaged from treatment. Nationally, the Close the Gap campaign aims to re-engage people living with HIV who are not on treatment and to expand access to prevention and testing services.University community including students represent a critical but underserved population for HIV and TB prevention, testing, and education. Factors such as stigma, limited access to youth friendly services, and inadequate health literacy contribute to delayed testing and care seeking behaviour.The Department of Biomedical Sciences at Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) has strong capacity in medical laboratory sciences, research, and student training. In collaboration with Health Systems Trust (HST), an organisation with expertise in health systems strengthening, implementation support, and data driven public health interventions, this initiative proposes an integrated, student centred HIV and TB programme aligned with the SASUF AIMS focus on student empowerment, innovation, research, and social impact.	Health Systems Trust
Sustainable Health	99. How can healthcare systems ensure that patient information accessed through third‑party translation apps remains accurate, safe, and reliable, despite not controlling these tools—and what lessons can be learned from other sectors that have already confronted similar digital translation risks and challenges?	The increasing use of translation apps, which are not developed or quality assured by the healthcare system, means that patients are increasingly accessing healthcare information through automated translations. How can we ensure that this information is accurate, safe, and reliable, despite the fact that healthcare providers do not control these tools? And what lessons can we draw from other sectors that are already managing similar digital translation challenges and risks?	Transkulturellt centrum, Region Stockholm
Migration and urbanisation	50. How can cities create fair, sustainable solutions for informal trolley-based transport that protect livelihoods while reducing retailer losses?	Asiye eTafuleni (AeT) works closely with informal workers and allied professionals to advance inclusive urban planning and design that supports sustainable livelihoods in public spaces. With over 17 years of organisational experience and more than 70 years of collective team engagement in the Warwick Junction precinct, AeT has developed deep, practice-based insights into the informal economy. This work is grounded in the belief that informal economic activities such as market trading, street vending, and informal recycling must be integrated into urban planning and budgeting processes to create inclusive, vibrant, and economically resilient cities. Through its interconnected workstreams - urban intelligence, advocacy, learning, and innovation - AeT promotes participatory approaches that position informal workers as co-developers of their working environments.Within this context, a key challenge has emerged around informal, non-motorised transport systems, particularly the use of shopping trolleys as essential tools of trade. While retailers experience significant financial losses due to trolley misappropriation, informal workers - who often acquire these trolleys through intermediaries - face ongoing criminalisation and enforcement actions, including confiscation by private security. Current recovery approaches are neither sustainable nor socially just, and may raise legal and constitutional concerns. AeT’s research and fieldwork highlight the need for a systemic, diversionary intervention that addresses the full value chain of trolley use, reduces losses in the retail sector, and supports dignified, lawful livelihood practices in the informal economy. This challenge presents an opportunity for collaborative, interdisciplinary research to co-develop innovative, context-responsive solutions that bridge formal and informal urban systems.	Asiye eTafuleni
Migration and urbanisation	100. How can we address the insider–outsider gap in housing markets—where established residents are favoured over newcomers—by identifying underlying patterns in South Africa and Sweden and developing strategies that enable migrants to access stable housing?	How to overcome the insider-outsider housing gap? Housing markets in ZA and SE favor those who are already established, making it hard for migrants to break in. What patterns do we see and how to overcome this?	Delegation for Migration Studies, Delmi
Migration and urbanisation	23. How can sustainable funding mechanisms be developed to address unemployment and prevent xenophobic attacks against refugees, migrants, and other foreign nationals?	In Pietermaritzburg, many refugees and migrants live with daily fear and uncertainty. They come seeking safety and a better life, but instead face rejection when looking for jobs. With no opportunities, they are forced to create small businesses just to survive. Yet even these are not safe; they are often targeted during xenophobic attacks, looted, or destroyed, leaving families with nothing.Life is filled with constant struggle: hunger, lack of basic services, discrimination, and fear of violence. Women and children are especially vulnerable, facing even greater risks.The Key Ministry International (KMI) stands with these communities, trying to bring hope through support and empowerment. But with little funding, KMI is struggling to respond to the overwhelming need. Many cries for help go unanswered, not because of unwillingness, but because there are simply not enough resources.	The Key Ministry International
Democracy, social justice and indigenous knowledge systems	53. How can affordable, reusable menstrual products be designed, accepted, and adopted in underserved communities by addressing financial, infrastructural, and socio‑cultural barriers?	The aim of this project is to address the challenges women face in accessing menstrual products, particularly those affected by financial constraints. Recognising menstrual hygiene as a societal challenge requiring sustainable solutions, the project seeks to investigate barriers to access and usability while developing contextually relevant menstrual product interventions. The project aims to design and develop a sustainable menstrual product (reusable pads) for underserved communities and individuals. Part of the project seeks to promote skills transfer amongst the underserved communities.	Durban Textile Leather Incubator