Dr Heide Hackmann is the Interim Director of the Future Africa Institute and Strategic Advisor on Transdisciplinarity and Global Knowledge Networks at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. She holds an MPhil in Contemporary Social Theory from the University of Cambridge in the UK and a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from the University of Twente in the Netherlands. Dr Hackmann’s career, which dates back to the early 1990s when she worked at the Human Sciences Research Council in South Africa, includes more than 20 years of international experience in science and technology policy, global science strategy and systems development, as well as international science advice and diplomacy. Before joining the University of Pretoria, she served as the founding CEO of the Internation