Awards for exceptional ethics and research management
- Wits University
Southern African Research and Innovation Agency awards Witsies ahead of International Research Administrators Day.
The Southern African Research and Innovation Agency (SARIMA) recognised institutional research managers and administrators at its 2026 conference gala dinner and awards, held in Johannesburg on 10 September.
Witsies Eleni Flack-Davison and Tanya Coetzee accepted the 2026 SARIMA Award for Organisational Excellence in Research Management, on behalf of the Wits Research Ethics and Integrity Office. Wit Enterprise's Barbara Herweg received the Professional Excellence in Research Management award. Herweg shares this award with UCT’s Lisa Le Roux.
SARIMA is a membership organisation comprising research and innovation managers who operate at an institutional, national, and international level. SARIMA provides a platform for the promotion and facilitation of best practice in research and innovation management – from foundational research generation to the commercialisation of innovation.
The SARIMA awards are timeous now since International Research Administrators Day on 25 September annually pays tribute to the professional research management staff who are critical to managing, enabling, and facilitating the research that scientists and scholars undertake.
Organisational Excellence in Research Management
Eleni Flack-Davison and Tanya Coetzee, in Wits University’s Research Ethics and Integrity Office, received the Organisational Excellence in Research Management award in recognition of their institutional leadership and operational achievements in research ethics and integrity management.
Flack-Davison leads the Research Integrity Office at Wits and she is the University’s research legal adviser, research compliance manager, and research data protection officer.
Coetzee is a research ethics officer in Wits' Research and Innovation Directorate, which represents five ethics committees: the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) Medical; HREC Non-Medical; Animal Ethics Committee; Institutional Biosafety Committee; and the Biobanks Ethics Committee.
Wits University operates the oldest continuously running research ethics committee in Africa. In October 1966, Wits established the ‘Committee for Research on Human Subjects’ – the first of its kind in Africa (and the Southern Hemisphere).
The SARIMA award for Organisational Excellence in Research Management recognises the significant contributions of the Wits Research Ethics and Integrity Office team in processing 4,725 ethics applications in 2025, and for helping manage Wits’ crisis response to the University’s National Institutes of Health-funded programmes. The team also contributed to national ethics guidelines and implemented Wits’ institutional AI Framework.
Professional Excellence in Research Management
Barbara Herweg is Head of Project Management at Wits Enterprise. The SARIMA Professional Excellence in Research Management award recognises Herweg’s exceptional leadership in coordinating multiple, large-scale projects.
These projects included the likes of the European Commission, the Southern African Development Community, the National Research Foundation-Technology and Human Resource for Industry Programme, UNICEF, the German Corporation for International Cooperation, the Southern African Development Community, and the International Development Research Centre.
Herweg has also significantly contributed to mentoring, professional development, and engagement across the international research management community.
International Research Administrator and Manager Day
It is International Research Administrator and Manager Day annually on 25 September, which honours the vital contributions of research managers, administrators, and grant professionals to research.
This global ‘Research Administrators’ Day’ was established in 2015 by the US’s National Council of University Research Administrators. It is supported in South Africa by networks like SARIMA and the Science for Africa Foundation.