SA-DISCNet: A collaborative data science training network across southern Africa and southern UK

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Data intensive science is a major global growth area, as the volume, complexity and rate of digital data within governments and companies continues to rapidly increase. At the same time, powerful analysis techniques continue to evolve for obtaining radical insights into large datasets, including finding clusters and anomalies, as well as detecting and predicting dominant trends and correlations in such data. This data intensive science comes at a crucial time for global development. Major worldwide challenges, as encapsulated in the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), require multidisciplinary solutions, many of which include data science. Moreover, the South African National Development Plan (NDP) for 2030 recognises the need to "sharpen its innovative edge and continue contributing to global scientific and technological advancement" and "shift to a more knowledge-intensive economy". We therefore propose to build a training network in data intensive science between universities in southern UK and partners in southern Africa to help address these SDGs and NDP priorities. The cornerstones of this network will be the `Data Intensive Science Centre in SEPnet' (DISCnet) and the African Institute of Mathematical Science (AIMS) South Africa. Together, we will pilot an innovative course of training and internships for the next generation of data analysts, focusing on solving SDG-related questions in South Africa and acting as a driver of the country's economy in the 21st century. Our aim with this pilot training programme is to equip and send students to solve data science problems associated with sustainable development goals (SDGs) in SA and beyond. The specific goals of the pilot programme are to: (i) Deliver an initial cohort of at least 10 highly trained African data scientists; (ii) Provide a world-class data science school to African students, leveraging existing DISCnet training material; (iii) Prime-pump a new 8-week hand-on data science training course at AIMS with contributions from DISCnet; (iv) Contribute to the sustainable development goals via 3 month strategic student internships with South African organisations and companies, focusing on economic development and welfare; (v) Understand the details of managing an extended, sustainable training network across southern Africa.This pilot leverages considerable investment from STFC, our university partners, and the Royal Society (RS). Our long-term ambition is to create a sustainable network of comparable scale to DISCnet, e.g. approximately 25 African STEM students per year receiving our specialist training. These students will become the future data science leaders in Africa.