And the ‘Science Oscar’ goes to?

The list of 2025/2026 Science Oscars winners is in, and one University of Cape Town (UCT) academic and a research group made the cut.

Professor Sudesh Sivarasu, who is the South African Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering and Innovation, the director of the Biomedical Engineering Research Centre and the head of the Division of Biomedical Engineering and UCT MedTech, received the Engineering Research Capacity Development Award. The award recognises his contribution to “closing the gap between African clinical need and globally competitive medical device technology”.

The Cube Analysis and Rendering Tool for Astronomy (CARTA) team, based in the Inter-University Institute for Data-Intensive Astronomy (IDIA), received the inaugural Research Software Award. The late Professor Rob Simmonds, IDIA’s associate director for new technologies, served as CARTA’s technical lead. In addition, the winner of the Data for Research category was the National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA) 2025 Core Data Team, which included UCT Honorary Associate Professor Andrew Skowno.

The prestigious National Science and Technology Forum (NSTF)-South32 Awards, known locally as the ‘Science Oscars’, recognise excellence in science, technology and innovation. The awards honour outstanding contributions by researchers, innovators, science communicators, data specialists and research leaders whose work is shaping South Africa’s future and advancing global knowledge.

Recognising the collective

Professor Sivarasu said he is honoured and humbled by the recognition. However, he stressed that it’s not a singular award. Instead, it recognises the collective and continuous contributions by African scholars in the research centre who are committed to building solutions to some of the continent’s most pressing health challenges.

“This award celebrates capacity development and that is where my heart is.”

In a decade and a half, Sivarasu said he has trained more than 100 researchers at postdoctoral, doctoral, master’s and honours level, each of whom have gone on to make a significant contribution to health innovation. This award, he added, belongs to them.

“This award celebrates capacity development and that is where my heart is. As I often say, the most durable thing we can build is people and people go on to build everything else. This award belongs to every one of them [students], as much as it does to me,” he said.

Attaining health sovereignty

Touching on why his work is important, Sivarasu said South Africa still imports a large number of medical devices. What this means is that the country’s health systems depend on technology designed for contexts that are too expensive, too fragile and often not suited for local health systems (such as a rural clinic). UCT MedTech aims to change this by designing medical devices that are affordable and clinically relevant for low-resource settings.

“Closing that gap isn’t just about better medical devices – it’s about health sovereignty and about proving that world-class innovation can come from Africa, for Africa and the world,” he said.

His vision, Sivarasu added, is creating a funnel of African innovators who are equipped to design medical devices that serve the African population, from the continent.

“I want a future where an African engineer designs the medical device; an African facility manufactures it under internationally accepted quality systems; and an African clinician uses it to treat an African patient. We have started to show that it’s possible,” he said. “And the real difference is generational. If we keep training engineers who stay, build and mentor others, the ecosystem sustains itself long after any of us. That’s the real legacy I care about.”

A meaningful, bittersweet recognition

Professor Roger Deane, the director of IDIA, said the award is a significant recognition of the technical ambition, sustained effort and international collaboration that have been essential to CARTA’s success. He noted that even though sophisticated research software is central to modern science, the people who design, build and maintain it don’t always receive the recognition associated with more traditional research outputs.

“Although the award was accepted by IDIA in recognition of its strategic and technical leadership, it belongs to the entire CARTA collaboration: the developers, scientists and institutional partners who have built and advanced the platform over more than a decade,” Professor Deane said.

“It is also a particularly meaningful and bittersweet tribute to Professor Rob Simmonds, whose technical leadership was central to CARTA’s development.”

A major boost

Deane said the award also serves as a major boost for the team’s morale, gives CARTA greater national visibility and strengthens the case for sustained investment in its future.

More broadly, it helps institutions, funders and scientific communities understand what it takes to build reliable, scalable tools that can support major international research infrastructures over many years.

“Research software of this scale requires long-term developer capacity and institutional commitment. It cannot be built and maintained effectively through short-term funding alone. We hope this recognition will reinforce CARTA’s position as a leading visual analytics platform that serves a wide range of communities using major astronomical facilities,” he said.

UCT eResearch played a central role in conceptualising and developing the new Research Software Award, working with the NSTF to establish the category and bringing the South African Centre for Digital Language Resources (SADiLaR) on board as its sponsor. Announced during the Research Software Symposium held at UCT on 4 November 2025, the award represents a significant step toward acknowledging the role of research software and its creators as critical enablers of scientific discovery, open science and digital research infrastructure.

“The strong participation from across disciplines highlights a growing national community of research software stakeholders,” said Professor Mattia Vaccari, director of UCT eResearch. “The nominations for this new category acknowledge diverse contributors to research software, from postgraduate students and researchers to research software engineers, computational scientists, data scientists and digital humanists.”

Strengthening biodiversity knowledge: Extraordinary collaborative efforts

The National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA) 2025 Core Data Team was recognised in the prestigious Data for Research category. This award celebrated the collective expertise and collaboration of approximately 490 experts over six years, led by a dedicated Core Data Team of 21 professionals from the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and partner institutions including UCT, through Professor Skowno’s affiliation with the Centre for Statistics in Ecology, the Environment and Conservation (SEEC).

Together, they integrated extensive biodiversity datasets, conducted complex analyses and transformed scientific information into practical decision-support products. The team's dedication is leading to the strengthening of South Africa's biodiversity knowledge and conservation efforts, demonstrating how science and data can drive informed decision-making for a more sustainable future.

UCT’s role in national excellence

The success of UCT's finalists and winners – alongside other great thought leaders in the science, engineering and technology space – represented the practical application of research, turning academic inquiry into discovery, contribution and impact that benefit society. For UCT, these awards are not just accolades; they are a validation of the university’s commitment to research excellence and societal impact, and to providing the freedom necessary for world-class innovation and global knowledge advancement.

Watch a recording of the 2025/2026 NSTF-South32 Awards, Thursday 16 July 2026.