The Water, Sanitation & Hygiene Research & Development (WASH R&D) Centre, based at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, is a transdisciplinary research and development hub with international reach that produces next generation solutions for global water and sanitation challenges.The mission of the Centre is to be a Centre of Excellence for cutting-edge applied and transdisciplinary research in the WASH sector, to grow collaborations with local and international partners, and to produce the next generation of experts through education and capacity-building in order to solve the water and sanitation crisis on a global level, with a focus on the African continent.This proposal aims to seek support for the restructuring of the WASH Centre, to ensure its sustainability in a more business-oriented fashion, while establishing the needed criteria (excellence in both theoretical and applied research) to become a South African (and possibly African) Centre of Excellence (CoE) in the WASH sector.