South Africa and Cuba will work together to advance the technology focusing on biotechnology, climate change, renewable energy technologies, and nanotechnology, according to the South African Department of Science and Technology (DST).
Spokesman for the department Lunga Ngqengelele said that Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor and her Cuban counterpart Fernando Gonzalez Bermudez had agreed to work together after a bilateral meeting in Pretoria on Monday. Bermudez was in the country at the invitation of former minister of science and technology, Mosibudi Mangena.
The biotechnology projects being pursued between the two countries are the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Rotavirus project and the pre-clinical drug development project. The HPV Rotavirus project is coordinated by Stellenbosch University and the University of Cape Town, while the pre-clinical drug development project is coordinated by BioPAD and the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research.
The department of science and technology has been funding the HPV Rotavirus project since 2008 and funding would last until 2011.