The partnership between the Society for Industrial and Organisational Psychology in South Africa (SIOPSA) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST) was formed at the 2018 SIOPSA conference. It saw the leadership of the DST and SIOPSA committing themselves to the mutual development of science in practice in South Africa.

The next step in the partnership journey was to bring these two worlds closer together at the Science Forum South Africa (SFSA) in December 2018. The SFSA is the largest national science event in South Africa that draws over 3000 interested thought leaders in science from around the world each year. In 2018, SIOPSA made its mark by their contribution to the behavioural sciences, thus participating to close a specific gap at the SFSA. The partnership is flourishing and Conference 2019 will experience further involvement by the DST. SIOPSA and the DST believe that this new partnership meaningfully shows a holistic picture of the physical, social and behavioural sciences. Through strengthening this relationship, we know we can build trust and improve the effectiveness of collaboration within the diverse world of the sciences.