Case Studies: Potential Areas of Research and Doctoral Training

Despite the abundance of natural resources, Southern Africa continues to face challenges in tapping these resources for the benefit of their communities. While such challenges may largely be due to inadequate financial resources, they have also been attributed to the shortage and mismatch of skills. As much as there are such opportunities and challenges, it equally means these are not only potential areas of research and doctoral training, but also opportunities for generating income that can be invested back to develop further and generate new ideas through PhD training. Through the network created in Southern Africa, four PhD students have so far been registered under the Doctoral Training Centres in collaboration with industry, to address issues of regional and strategic needs. This chapter focuses on the four case studies and also considers other areas of strategic importance with the anticipation that these will be included as the next Doctoral Training Centres are rolled out.