Capacity building for directed breeding programs and bioinformatics research at the JKUAT university and KALRO institute in Kenya

In the context of two VLIRUOS projects, Hasselt University, together with JKUAT and KALRO, are working on building bioinformatics capacity with the aim of developing directed breeding programmes for staple food crops and economically important livestock. These breeding programmes are key in protecting Kenyan socio-economic stability, as well as safeguarding food production under threat from competing economic conditions, and climate change.

During these projects, Hasselt University, together with the South partners, have invested not only in computing infrastructure but also in networking and education. This educational part consisted of workshops for students, train-the-trainer events, and international mobility from Kenya to Belgium for specialised training. Our aim is to provide a nourishing basis for long-term scientific and educational collaboration, for example with our international master in statistics.