Dr Thabi Maitin

Achievements at the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC): Over the past 14 years, Dr Thabi Maitin has been responsible for the funding portfolio of the South African Medical Research Council that awards research scholarships towards training for Masters, PhD and also awards research grants for post-doc and seasoned researchers in all participating universities in South Africa and abroad in the field of medical, clinical and health sciences. This is broadly the agenda of “development of the next generation of Health and Clinical Researchers” for South Africa.

She has been involved in ensuring transformation in funding by the SAMRC. For example, one such transformational funding programme is what is known as the Initiative of Research Capacity Development in Selected Universities in South Africa, a programme that makes available research grant funding for the historically disadvantaged institutions (HDI) of South Africa. This is a responsive programme to the question of transformation in South Africa, as well as transformation in funding at SAMRC. For the first time, SAMRC has been able to have evidence that gauges the strides that the organization has made in transforming how it funds research to ensure a nationwide footprint and demographic equity.

For nearly a decade and a half, Dr Maitin has been one of the heads of entities at SAMRC who are responsible for the management of SAMRC’s researcher development pipeline. She has been responsible for ensuring that the pipeline of researcher development in the country is active and productive and ensures skills transfer through the development, management and monitoring and evaluation of various innovative researcher programmes such as the SAMRC Internship Scholarship Programme, the Post-doctoral programme and the Mid-career scientists programme.

International involvement in capacity development - strengthening work: Dr Maitin is a participating member of the ESSENCE on health research initiative – the secretariat of which is hosted by TDR – and has acted as Chair of its Standing Committee. She continues as Co-chair of the ESSENCE Working Group on Research Investments, which focuses on investments in research capacity strengthening in low- and middle-income countries. Click here for more information on ESSENCE.

International | Regional | Continent-wide | and Country-wide leadership in the professionalization of research management 

Dr Maitin is part of the International Professionalization of Research Management Committee (IPRC). Following intensive evaluation of Dr Maitin’s work over the years, she has been recognized as one of only a handful of Senior Research Management Professionals in the continent, the designation of which is “SMRP”.

Currently Dr Maitin is actively contributing to the work of the IPRC as a committee member of the Technical Review Committee (TRC), which awards professional development points for various trainings and workshops mounted by research management professionals worldwide to advance the profession of Research Management.

UKCDR Equitable Partnerships Expert Ggroup: Dr Maitin is a retained member of this group, which has produced publications on equitable partnerships in research and works hand-in-hand with various partners, contributors and organizations with the view to impacting the integrity of partnerships where equity can be entrenched.

Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee

In 2022, Dr Maitin joined STAC as one of its multidisciplinary members, selected on the basis of individual scientific or technical competence to provide external scientific and technical input in the planning, prioritization and review of TDR’s activities.