Professor Cobus Visagie won the 2026 New Frontiers Research Award, which will help him bring the study of mycology to schools across South Africa and hopefully lead to many new discoveries.
Pretoria, South Africa (29 May 2026) – South African professor and mycologist Cobus Visagie just earned an award that is not only life-changing for his research, but will change the face of mycology in South Africa over the next five years.
Professor Visagie joined over 100 researchers in submitting their work for the 2026 New Frontiers Research Award, funded by the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust (OMT). The Trust launched the award in 2024 to bolster South Africa’s global reputation for research excellence, and attract and retain early- to mid-career researchers who will build diverse, high-performance research teams, foster collaboration and strengthen the South African academy. It aims to give exceptionally talented researchers the freedom and flexibility to pursue bold ideas and push the boundaries of knowledge.
Professor Cobus Visagie is an associate professor at the Forestry and Agriculture Biotechnology Institute (FABI), which is linked to the Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology at the University of Pretoria, to find, identify, name and catalogue fungi, creating resources that can be used by researchers across the globe.
Fungi play an essential yet unseen role in all life on Earth; without them, there would be no decomposition of organic materials or the creation of essential plant nutrients, much less the mitigation of man-made carbon, no leavened bread (or beer), and even lifesaving medicines, among many other things. Yet we know so little about them.
OMT chairperson Rebecca Oppenheimer shared her thoughts on Professor Visagie’s work, saying that it highlights the incredible biodiversity of South Africa.
“Professor Visagie’s work has the potential to positively impact a dazzling array of matters that impact humanity, from health to cleaner agriculture, and to environmental sustainability and addressing climate change.
“South Africa’s unique advantage is that we are home to one of the most biodiverse plant kingdoms in the world. Given this natural endowment, the research that he and his colleagues are doing is not simply a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have.
“We’re exceptionally proud to support work like this, which holds enormous promise for a better world and brighter future, and which will place South African academia front and centre on the global stage.” – Rebecca Oppenheimer
Professor Visagie is poised to innovate in ways we can only imagine. South Africa is one of the most biodiverse regions in the world and is largely considered one of the world’s fungal hotspots, with an estimated 2.5 million species worldwide, 200,000 of which are estimated for South Africa. Only around 155,000 fungi have been described worldwide.
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Cape Town Kayakers Rescue Starving African Penguin Far Out to SeaThe New Frontiers Research Award will grant Professor Visagie a R1.5-million research grant each year, for a total of five years, totalling R7.5-million towards his research. Funds are being put towards his project called Mapping Unseen Fungi Across South Africa (MUFASA), which will seek to find, culture, describe, name and whole genome sequence hundreds of novel fungal species, providing science with a vital new resource.
“One of the big outcomes of this project will be the building of a culture collection with the species from South Africa, because if we don’t have those strains, we cannot study them and take research into fungi and its benefits forward,”
“We’re on the cusp of technological changes that allow biodiversity discovery to be quicker and more effective. If we don’t use this opportunity now, then South Africa and Africa will be left behind. It’s our job to do this,” he states. “It’s the perfect time for South Africa to record its own biodiversity – and in turn make a huge contribution to international biodiversity knowledge.” shared Professor Visagie
Collaboration is a major part of Professor Visagie’s vision for MUFASA. From partnering with academics worldwide to launching citizen science projects to collect samples across South Africa, the opportunity to make new discoveries is great!
“One person cannot run the network alone. We need a team to make this work,” he says.
The citizen science element was my favourite part of the project because teams in all nine provinces will visit schools, challenging students to collect samples. But here is the best part: any new discoveries made will be named after the student who collected the sample. That is massive!
“Imagine the potential that sits out there. MUFASA’s objective is to build a resource so that we can begin understanding them and harnessing them or, in the case of pathogens, combating them,”
“The funding that we’re getting from the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust is incredible. I’m so happy that this is happening, and happening with OMT. The prestige that goes with that is immense.” Professor Visagie, ends.
This funding could very well lead to the next big discovery! This is only the beginning. We hope to share many more stories about Professor Visagie’s work in the coming years, so stay tuned!
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