SANBI has added another national accolade to its growing list of achievements, with the National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA) 2025 Core Data Team receiving the prestigious NSTF-South32 Data for Research Award.
The winners were announced on Thursday, 16 July 2026, during the awards gala dinner, hosted simultaneously in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Widely regarded as South Africa’s ‘Science Oscars’, the awards are the country’s premier recognition platform for excellence in science, engineering, technology and innovation.
For 28 years, the NSTF-South32 Awards have celebrated outstanding contributions by researchers, innovators, science communicators, data specialists and research leaders whose work is shaping South Africa’s future and advancing global knowledge.
The NBA is South Africa’s primary tool for monitoring and reporting on the state of the country’s biodiversity. It provides the scientific evidence needed to inform policy, land-use planning and sustainable development, helping decision-makers understand the health of our natural environment and the benefits it provides to society.
NBA 2025 represents an extraordinary collaborative effort, involving approximately 490 experts over six years, led by a dedicated Core Data Team of 21 professionals from SANBI and partner institutions. Together, they integrated extensive biodiversity datasets, conducted complex analyses and transformed scientific information into practical decision-support products.
A defining feature of NBA 2025 is its transformation into an innovative, web-based living assessment, developed entirely in-house. The platform enables users to move seamlessly from high-level findings to the underlying data, methods and analyses, significantly improving the accessibility, transparency and long-term value of South Africa’s biodiversity evidence base.
Accepting the award on behalf of the team, SANBI Chief Executive Officer, Shonisani Munzhedzi, praised their dedication and innovation.
‘This award recognises not only the importance of biodiversity data in national decision-making, but also the passion, innovation and commitment of the Core Data Team. They embraced new technologies, developed new skills, and consistently went beyond the call of duty to deliver a product that serves South Africa.’
This prestigious recognition celebrates the collective expertise, dedication and collaboration of the NBA 2025 Core Data Team, comprising of Andrew Skowno, Carol Poole, Anisha Dayaram, Dewidine van der Colff, Domitilla Raimondo, Hlengiwe Mtshali, Jessica da Silva, Jock Currie, Kerry Sink, Lara van Niekerk (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research – CSIR), Linda Harris (Nelson Mandela University), Lize von Staden, Loyiso Dunga (SANBI and Nelson Mandela University), Maphale Monyeki, Megan van der Bank, Nacelle Collins (Free State Department of Environmental Affairs), Nancy Job, Natasha Besseling, Sediqa Khatieb, Shae-Lynn Hendricks and Stephni van der Merwe (SANBI and the University of Cape Town). Their collective expertise, innovation and commitment have strengthened South Africa’s biodiversity knowledge and earned national recognition for their outstanding work.
The team’s composition reflects that today’s biodiversity scientists need a diverse skill set that extends beyond traditional ecology and conservation science to include data science, coding, analytics, communication and collaboration. Continual upskilling will remain essential as technology and the world of data and biodiversity science rapidly evolve.
Shonisani Munzhedzi concluded by thanking every member of the team, ‘On behalf of SANBI, I would like to sincerely thank and congratulate every member of the NBA 2025 Core Data Team. It is a privilege to accept this award on your behalf.’
Although the Core Data Team ran the complex analyses and learned the new skills and coding required to put the NBA into its beautiful online platform (https://nba.sanbi.org.za/ all 490 contributors to NBA 2025 deserve the recognition from this award. The data providers, reviewers, workshop participants, members of the governance structures, communicators, administrators and more – each contribution to NBA 2025 was much appreciated. This award is a proud moment for SANBI and a reflection of the excellence, collaboration and innovation that define our organisation. Congratulations to the NBA 2025 Core Data Team and everyone who contributed to this remarkable national achievement.