To address the imminent challenges of climate Change and to improve the regional integration in research programmes, a SASSCAL 2.0 research portfolio was developed beyond national ambits and with consideration for the cornerstones of SASSCAL’s research and capacity building value proposition namely; relevance, excellence and innovativeness, capacity development and regional integration. The SASSCAL 2.0 research portfolio is conceptualized to enhance internationally recognized research programmes, intensify continental and global engagement by developing and expanding international research collaboration, building sustainable multinational partnerships, and addressing global challenges through international development projects. It supports research that advances diversity and inclusivity that leads to an increased understanding of cultures and communities within the region and across Africa; it is the research that affects people and improves the quality of lives.

Projects in the SASSCAL 2.0 Research Portfolio are categorised according to project type:

  • SGC (SADC Grand Challenges) addressing key integrated regionally relevant topics in at least three SADC countries and demonstrating that effective response to climate change and other forms of environmental and social changes will benefit from addressing three or more RPA’s. These projects contribute to establishing new research approaches and models in a sense of integrating research towards solutions to adapt to climate and land management changes.
  • IRP (Individual Research Projects) enabling researcher groups to conduct research projects within clearly defined topics addressing one or more of the SASSCAL Research Priority Areas (RPAs). These projects deal with innovative and novel research approaches and methods supporting a better understanding of environmental systems that are affected by climate change and that take interacting environmental and socio-economic processes and their relevance for improving adaptation strategies into account.
  • SP (Support Projects) offering an international research consortium the opportunity to engage in scientific exchange and cooperation on SASSCAL topics addressing SASSCAL’s RPAs across locations.
  • SIDP (Scientific Infrastructure Development Projects) targeting support activities that focus on building and/or improving scientific infrastructure such as Data and Information Systems, Scientific Instrumentation and Information Technology, laboratories or other research facilities supporting SASSCAL’s research, capacity development and service provision goals.
  • NS (Network Support Projects) aiming to reinforce and complement previous or ongoing SASSCAL projects with a specific user-oriented research topic that is either complementary or gap-filling, including the continuation of monitoring projects, data-intense projects.

Within the scope of the five project type categories, the following 13 SASSCAL 2.0 projects have been launched:

Project Type Project Acronym Full Title Key Phrase Coordinator  Department, Faculty, Insitution Coordinating Country Contact
SGC SUSTAIN Sustainable Food Security and Woodland Utilization for Drought-Prone Communal Areas under Climate Change in SADC Countries Restoration and sustainable use of degrading ecosystems Prof. Dr. Barbara Reinhold-Hurek Microbe-Plant Interactions, University of Bremen, Germany DE breinhold@uni-bremen.de 
SGC FoSRecS Enhancing Food Security through Integration of Climate Resilient Crops in Maize based Farming Systems among Small-scale Farmers in Zambia and Namibia Area specific crop diversification and climate smart agriculture Mr William Funsani Zambia Agriculture Research Institute - Mochipapa Research Station, Zambia ZM funsaniwilliam1@yahoo.com 
SGC RIBS Rangeland improvement through bush control and sustainable intensification to mitigate climate change and improve livelihoods and food security in southern Africa Rangeland rehabilitation, bush thinning technologies and advisory service Prof. Simon T. Angombe Department of Geography, History and Environmental Studies, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Namibia, Namibia NA sangombe@unam.na 
SGC ELNAC Enhanced Livelihoods and Natural Resource Management under Accelerated Climate Change: a large landscape social-ecological systems approach Sustainable socio-economic development in conservation areas Prof Oluwatoyin Kolawole Okavango Research Institute (ORI), University of Botswana (UB), Botswana BW TKolawole@ub.ac.bw 
SGC TIPPECC Climate change information for adapting to regional tipping points in southern Africa Adaptation to and projection of climate change induced tipping points Prof Dr Francois Engelbrecht Global Change Institute (GCI), University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), South Africa ZA francois.engelbrecht@wits.ac.za 
IRP ANTELOPE The impact of climate change on African antelope Biologging behavioural and physiological flexibility of antelopes Dr. Robyn Hetem School of Animal, Plant and Environmental ZA robyn.hetem@wits.ac.za 
IRP WIRE Water storage in the Angolan-Namibian Iishana system: resource management and adaptation to climate change Hydrology and storage capacity of Iishana Region Prof. Dr. Achim Schulte Applied Physical Geography, Environmental Hydrology and Resource Management, Institute of Geographical Science, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany DE achim.schulte@fu-berlin.de 
IRP FRAMe Farmer Resilience and Melon Crop Diversity in southern Africa (FRAMe) Understanding and evaluation of resilient melon crop diversity Dr. Gillian Maggs-Kölling Gobabeb Research and Training Centre, Namibia NA gollian@gobabep.org  
SP Climate Smart Crops Characterization and technology transfer of value added products from climate smart emerging crops to improve food security in Botswana and Namibia Dr. R. Kobue-Lekalake Department of Food Science & Technology; Botswana University of Agriculture & Natural Resources (BUAN). Botswana BW rlekalake@buan.ac.bw 
SP Beekeeping Support to Capacity Building in Beekeeping and honey production value chain for climate change mitigation Mr Malunga M Mwape School of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mulungushi University, Zambia malungamm@yahoo.co.uk 
SIDP ANGSOIL Sustainable management of soil fertility Prof. Dr. Ginhas Alexandre Manuel University of José Eduardo dos Santos: Faculty of Agriculture Science ( FCA/UJES) , Angola ginhasmanuel@hotmail.com 
SIDP VRPE Virtual regional pole of engineering Emidio T. Lopes da Silva Centre of Excellence in Sciences emisilva11@gmail.com 
NS Properties Plants Assessment of nutritional and medicinal properties of selected plants from Angola and south Africa Beneficial plants for food security, development of natural medicines and phytochemical studies Dr. NJ Malebo Center for Applied Food Safety Technology, Central University of Technology (CUT), South Africa ZA nmalebo@cut.ac.za