New Centre of Excellence: DAAD funds agricultural and nutritional research with South Africa  [23.10.24]

University of Hohenheim and four African partner universities are extablishing a Centre of Excellence for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems and Applied Agricultural and Food Data Science.

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is supporting the establishment of a new Centre of Excellence for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems and Applied Agricultural and Food Data Science in South Africa. The University of Hohenheim as well as three South African and one Malawian partner university are involved in the project. Funding totalling almost 6.5 million euros until 2029 comes from the Federal Foreign Office (AA), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL).

From January 2025, the DAAD will fund projects that contribute to the further qualification of young scientists in agricultural and nutrition research in South Africa as part of the new "African-German Centre of Excellence for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems and Applied Agricultural and Food Data Science". The second important component of the programme is the promotion of the transfer of research results to the economy, politics and civil society in southern Africa.

As part of the programme, two chairs will also be established at South African partner universities. The university partners in South Africa are the Universities of Western Cape, Pretoria and Mpumalanga as well as the University of Lilongwe (University of Agriculture and Natural Resources) in Malawi. The National Research Foundation is supporting the establishment of the centre on the South African side with funds from the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI).


Background

The new centre of excellence is a joint project of the DAAD and the three federal ministries involved. It stems from the Federal Government's round table on the "Internationalisation of Education, Science and Research" with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. The AA finances the basic operation of the new centre of excellence, the BMBF funds a chair as well as German doctoral students and postdocs and the BMEL supports the doctoral programme for African doctoral students and postdocs. Funding for the second chair is provided by South Africa.


More information

• Website of the new Centre of African Excellence in South Africa

Contact for press:

Prof. Dr. Christine Wieck, University of Hohenheim, Dept. of Agricultural and Food Policy,
+49 0711 459 22656, christine.wieck@uni-hohenheim.de

Prof. Dr. Thomas Dimpfl, University of Hohenheim, Dept. of Business Mathematics and Data Science,
+49 0711 459 22639, thomas.dimpfl@uni-hohenheim.de

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