UKUDLA – Centre of Excellence for Food Systems and Food Data Science officially launched

On 20 January 2025, during the 11th German-African Agribusiness Forum, UKUDLA – the African-German Centre of Excellence for Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems and Applied Agricultural and Food Data Science – was officially launched.

The University of Pretoria (UP) will host UKUDLA’s Doctoral Training Centre under the Future Africa Chair in Sustainable Food Systems (FA-SFS), led by Prof Frans Swanepoel. The postgraduate centre will be part of a broader network of initiatives within the Future Africa Sustainable Food Systems Challenge Domain.

UKUDLA brings together prominent institutions such as UP, University of Hohenheim (Germany), University of the Western Cape, University of Mpumalanga, and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Malawi). It is supported by DAAD, German Federal Ministries, and South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF).

Key focus areas of UKUDLA include:

    • Building Capacity: Developing the next generation of scientists to drive transformative food systems research.
    • Digital Innovation: Advancing food systems through data science and digital technologies.
    • Collaborative Knowledge Production: Co-creating solutions with stakeholders across academia, business, politics, and society.