The global agri-food and natural resource sector is facing unprecedented challenges. From food security challenges because of a growing world population, extreme weather events related to climate change and ecological disruption due to human action. To respond to this challenge, we need new approaches, solutions and tools.
Data science is a key enabler of positive change, but we cannot unlock its true potential if we operate in silos, either within research disciplines, universities or between the public and private sectors. We make data and workflows interoperable, providing actionable information that accelerates innovation. The Stellenbosch AgroInformatics Initiative is a project by the Faculty of AgriSciences with the objective of enabling data-intensive interdisciplinary research and innovation partnerships that span departments, faculties, universities, companies and continents.
At SAI, we strive to enable data-intensive public-private interdisciplinary agri-food research collaboration that meets FAIR(ER) standards. These standards ensure that research data is Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. To this, we add Ethical data sharing and Reproducible standards. Learn more.
We tackle this challenge on multiple fronts: The GEMS informatics platform provides a secure web-based informatics service for storing, cleaning, exploring, sharing and analysing data. It supports public-private codevelopment of analytic workflows linked to versioned agri-food data. Learn more.
SAI Learning offers various software development and data science courses tailored to the needs of agri-food students and researchers. Currently, we offer courses in R, Python, UNIX, Bash, Git, Quarto and Jupyter Lab. Learn more.
True innovation is never an individual effort. At SAI, we are building a community of data-intensive agri-food and natural resource researchers that spans sectors and disciplines: Learn more.