New Centre of Excellence with South Africa  [30.10.24]

The University of Hohenheim is establishing a new Centre of Excellence for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems and Applied Agricultural and Food Data Science. Besides Hohenheim, three South African and one Malawian partner university are involved in the project. The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is supporting the establishment of the center, with funding of almost 6.5 million euros until 2029 coming from federal funds.

Translated with DeepL

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" – UKUDLA.

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 (UWC), Pretoria (UP) and Mpumalanga (UMP) as well as the University of Lilongwe (University of Agriculture and Natural Resources LUANAR) in Malawi.

Prof. Dr. Christine Wieck and Prof. Dr. Thomas Dimpfl are responsible for the academic coordination on the German side, Prof. Clement Nyirenda, Prof. Julian May, Dr. Frederic Isingizwe (UWC), Prof. Frans Swanepoel, Dr. Elizabeth Mkandawire, Abdul Ezakjee (UP), Dr. Agnes Mwangwela, Dr. Frank Tchuwa, Dr. Jessica Kampanje (LUANAR), Prof. Ndiko Ludidi, Prof. Victor Mlambo, and Dr. Samuel Ogunleye (UMP) on the African side

They are all excited about the new opportunities. "We want to provide postdocs and doctoral candidates with a tailor-made offer," reports Wieck, "with mentoring and career training, research training groups and summer schools." Master's students from Africa and Germany are also involved: "Scholarships, summer schools, certificate courses and workshops will ensure a lively professional and intercultural exchange," Dimpfl is convinced.

The research, he explains, will, for example, "use advanced data analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence to improve land management, nutrition and value chains. There will be a specialization in the sustainability and resilience of the system under stress or extreme conditions." The aim of the research is to "use data-based and digital approaches to contribute to the improvement of food systems in southern Africa together with our South African partners," summarizes Wieck.

Research, teaching and knowledge transfer

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.

Research, teaching and knowledge transfer are closely linked at three field research locations, so-called Living Labs: Two of these sites are located in South Africa - the Breede Valley in the Western Cape province and the Bushbuckridge and Nkomazi in the Mpumalanga province. One location, around the towns of Mitundu, Malingunde and Malili, is in Malawi.

The application for the new Centre of Excellence was a joint effort, reports Wieck. It was written in collaboration between the departments of Agricultural and Food Policy and Business Mathematics and Data Sciences, the Tropical Hub of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences in the Tropics (Hans Ruthenberg Institute HRI), the Hohenheim Research Center for Global Food Security and Ecosystems (GFE) and with great support from the Computational Science Hub.

The project management is supported by Dr. Marcus Giese (HRI) and David Puerta (GFE). "Located at the interface of agriculture, nutrition and data science, the Centre also contributes to the University of Hohenheim's strategic profile," Wieck emphasizes. "It represents a further building block in the expansion of our research activities with Africa."

Background of the Centre of Excellence

The new centre of excellence is a joint project of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the three federal ministries involved - - the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL). 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 Federal Foreign Office 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: 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).

Text: German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) / Elsner