Over the past four years, GreenQUEST’s investment in people has not only made the project’s scientific achievements possible, it has also nurtured the skills and professional networks of the participating researchers, ensuring that they will be able to continue advancing gLFG technologies into the future and continuing the legacy of the GreenQUEST project.
When tackling the challenge of developing new clean energy technologies, the driving force behind any project’s success is its people. Solving pioneering and transformative research topics requires individuals with the skills, networks, and opportunities to turn research into real-world solutions.
That is why GreenQUEST has invested in early-career researchers over the past four years. By providing them with the platform to become active contributors, the project enabled the next generation of scientists to work towards a more equitable and sustainable energy future for South Africa.
And in doing so, capacity building became a core driver of both scientific progress and the project’s long-term impact.
Launching the Careers of the Next Generation of Scientists
The success of GreenQUEST’s scientific achievements can be attributed to the active contribution of the participating young researchers.
12 MSc and 2 PhD students from the University of Cape Town and Nelson Mandela University worked directly on the scientific challenges at the heart of GreenQUEST, and by doing so they were instrumental in delivering the project’s objectives.
As a result of the ground-breaking research that they conducted for the project, the participating students gained opportunities to showcase their work and build recognition within their field.
Many took active advantage of the platform. In all, they presented GreenQUEST findings at 14 international scientific conferences across Europe and South Africa, and three awards were received by MSc students.
An outstanding example is Candace Eslick, from the University of Cape Town. Through her work with GreenQUEST, she not only won the Falling Walls Lab Cape Town 2025, but was also invited to the Falling Walls Science Summit in Berlin, where she pitched her bold idea, “Breaking the wall of clean cooking in Africa”, and participated in a high-level plenary table alongside senior experts from academia and industry.
The Ripple Effects of GreenQUEST’s Capacity Building Efforts
By investing in people, GreenQUEST strengthened both the cooperation within the international scientific community and the research capacity and profile of the participating institutions. They benefited not only from knowledge exchange between scientists in Germany and South Africa, but also from the visibility and achievements of their students and researchers.
GreenQUEST demonstrates that investing in people creates benefits that extend far beyond the lifetime of a project. The knowledge, skills, and international networks developed through the project will continue to shape future collaborations and help develop novel and innovative technologies in sustainable energy long after the project concludes.