Anonymous R100 million donation
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Anonymous donation of R100 million assists Wits Art Museum (WAM), the Digital Innovation Project, and University’s strategic transformation programme.
A long-term friend of Wits who chooses to remain anonymous made an exceptionally generous donation of R100 million in 2014, R10 million of which was specifically allocated to the Wits Art Museum (WAM). After much deliberation as how best to allocate the remaining R90 million, in September 2015 Professor Zeblon Vilakazi, the Deputy Vice- Chancellor of Research and Postgraduate Affairs announced the decision; R45 million to the Digital Innovation Project and the Inner City Research/Applied Complexity Research (ACR) Projects; and R45 million to the University’s strategic transformation programme.
The Digital Innovation Project is a research-led ecosystem that promotes digital innovation and entrepreneurship. In partnership with Wits Enterprise, the Wits Digital Launch Pad (an incubation capability) will be established to develop promising ideas from students, academics and researchers, from concept to viable start-up. The Digital Launch Pad will be located in the Tshimologong Precinct in Braamfontein. The ACR Projects, run through the Wits School of Governance, engage a trans-disciplinary approach in understanding inequality and exclusion in Joburg, as these dynamics account for much of the variance in systemic social and unemployment problems faced by the City. Several Wits partners are involved, including the Wits Transnet Centre for Systems Engineering and the Gauteng City-Region Observatory.