The Astronomy Department at UCT hosts three South African Research Chairs under the DST/NRF SARChI initiative established in 2006. 

•  The SARAO South African Research Chair in Extragalactic Multi-Wavelength Astronomy, since 2022 (Prof D.J Pisano)
•  The SALT South African Research Chair in Fast Transients and Gravitational Wave Counterparts, since 2018 (Prof Paul Groot)
•  The SAAO South African Research Chair, since 2019.

The SALT and SAAO SARChI chairs are based at a 50% appointment in South Africa, jointly hosted with SAAO, where the SALT SARChI chair resides at UCT Astronomy and the SAAO SARChI chair resides at SAAO (with an adjunct appointment at UCT Astronomy).