The Violence, Injuries and Social Asymmetries Research Unit (VISARU)

VISARU is designated an Extramural Research Unit by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC). VISARU is to be funded by the SAMRC and the Unisa USPRC from 2024 to 2028 and follows the SAMRC funded Masculinity and Health Research Unit which ended in 2023. VISARU is responsive to Unisa’s health studies, energy and marine catalytic niche research priorities, with a focus on violence and injury. VISARU studies focus on the epidemiology, causality, impact and preventability of injuries, with a focus on burns, violence, traffic and water injuries. The Unit has a special interest in the socio-structural determinants of these injures, including family and community poverty, economic inequality, energy poverty, gender inequality and toxic masculinities, and historical community marginalisation. The Unit draws on public health, social science and environmental disciplinary traditions to enable a critical social justice approach to the promotion of safety and wellbeing. VISARU hosts various innovative research platforms to study these drivers of injury and safety which will also serve as platforms for postgraduate Unisa studies. The Unit promotes the development of evaluation tools and host information systems to support such research. It uses this research to champion innovative prevention and containment efforts and study the factors that enable effective interventions and championship. VISARU leads or aligns with priority advocacy initiatives and strengthen national and continental information-based partnerships.