I am the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa, responsible for national research infrastructure platforms. This involves strategic oversight and leadership for research infrastructure provision across the national research enterprise, central to which are the national research facilities. My 30 years of professional experience has been in management of research support and research capacity development programmes at the NRF and at the South African Medical Research Council); in biodiversity and agricultural biotechnology research at the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity and the Agricultural Research Council, respectively); as well as in academia as a Lecturer in Biochemistry, Microbiology & Molecular Biology at the Tshwane University of Technology in Pretoria, South Africa.