African-German Centre of Excellence for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems and Applied Agricultural and Food Data Science

Cape Town city view © Colourbox

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).

The project is a pilot of a synergy project between the DAAD and the above-mentioned federal ministries. Its origins can be traced back to the Federal Government’s Round Table Initiative on the ‘Internationalisation of Education, Science and Research’ and its thematic cycle ‘Creating Perspectives in Africa’ in the years 2017-2022.

Taking into account the positive experience and success story of the DAAD programme “African Excellence – Centres of African Excellence”, funded by the Federal Foreign Office (AA) since 2008, Working Group 2 (WG2 – Agriculture), under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) together with Working Group 4 (WG4 – Administration), under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), developed a joint concept to establish an “African-German Centre for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems and Applied Agricultural and Food Data Science”.

The concept is based on a joint approach between the AA (Line A – Funding of the basic structure of the new centre), the BMBF (Line B – Research Chair and Doctoral and Postdoctoral funding for German PhD/Postdoc candidates) and the BMEL (Line C – Doctoral and Postdoctoral funding for African PhD/Postdoc candidates). On behalf of South Africa, the National Research Foundation (NRF) is also supporting the project with funds provided by the DSTI (Department of Science, Technology and Innovation) to establish a further research chair including accompanying activities in South Africa.

The funding of almost 6.5 million euros until 2029 is derived from:

– German Federal Foreign Office (AA) – Line A: financing the basic operation of the new Centre of Excellence,
– German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) – Line B: funding for a research chair and support for German doctoral students and postdocs
– German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) – Line C: funding of the postgraduate and doctoral programme for African doctoral students and postdocs
– the National Research Foundation (NRF Line: funding of a further research chair) via funds from the South African Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI)

Centre of Excellence for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems and Applied Agricultural and Food Data Science (UKUDLA)

Cooperation partners:
–   University of Hohenheim (Germany)
–   University of the Western Cape (South Africa)
–   University of Pretoria (South Africa)
–   University of Mpumalanga (South Africa)
–   Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Malawi)