Prof Elias Munapo from the North-West University (NWU) is a National Research Foundation- (NRF-) rated researcher – not a simple achievement for academics with major teaching and supervisory obligations.
His research interests are the use of mathematics and statistics in business. In 2022 he obtained his first C3 rating as a researcher. He joined the NWU in 2016 and feels that the path to an NRF rating is a contentious subject that is determined by an academic's preferences.
One option is to apply for an NRF rating first and then become an associate professor, then a full professor. The other route is to become an associate professor, then a full professor, and finally work on an NRF rating. He chose the latter option and it worked for him.
According to Prof Munapo, although being rated is beneficial, it is one's research output and activities that are the most important.
“Areas of expertise are not the same, and some fields of research are more difficult than others, making it challenging to compare rated researchers from different fields using the current NRF rating system. I am happy that I got the NRF rating. I wish to encourage colleagues in the scarce skills group of mathematics and statistics to select the best of the two routes and start planning for their NRF applications,” he says.
In April this year, Prof Munapo attended the International Conference on Optimization (ICO) 2023 in Thailand as conference organiser and presenter, and he received the Excellent Contributor Award there. He and members of the NWU subject group Statistics are preparing to host the ICO 2026 Conference in Johannesburg.
More about the researcher
Prof Munapo was born in rural eastern Zimbabwe and completed his primary- and secondary-school education there before attending Goromonzi High School near Harare for his advanced level secondary-school education.
He holds a BSc, an MSc and a PhD degree, all from Zimbabwe. Prof Munapo's MSc programme had 10 compulsory modules and a thesis. At that time, obtaining a PhD in Zimbabwe was particularly challenging, as articles had to be published in reputable journals before they were submitted for doctoral work. After passing the thesis examination process, he had to defend and prove ownership of the doctoral thesis.
Prof Munapo's research strength lies in the fact that the 10 compulsory modules of his master’s-degree programme provided him with a vast area to publish from, and he has been able to connect various fields in his research articles. While a broad research focus area usually is considered to be a disadvantage for an NRF rating, Prof Munapo views it as an advantage because he has been able to collaborate with researchers in various fields at international level. He has published more than 110 articles and expects to have published over 400 by the end of his career.
He is also a guest editor for two Department of Higher Education and Training-accredited journals, Applied Sciences and Algorithms.
For more information about Prof Munapo’s research, contact him at elias.munapo@nwu.ac.za.
Prof Elias Munapo
