African countries receive training opportunities in data science research

Researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in the US are leading a new collaborative effort to increase training opportunities in data science research in five African countries. They will work with colleagues at Heidelberg University to help develop a training hub at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), South Africa, that will also serve researchers at partner institutions in Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda. The new programme is one of 19 funded through a $74.5 million awards programme from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advance data science research on the continent. The research team leading the new programme aims to develop a critical mass of health data science researchers in Africa who can address policy-relevant questions in two key global health research areas: health systems strengthening; and food systems, climate change, and planetary health.