African Digital One Health Network (ADOHNet)
A data science network for infection biology and One Health – in partnership with BNITM
Aim
The African Digital One Health Network (ADOHNet) strengthens data analysis capacity across the full breadth of infection biology and One Health research in sub-Saharan Africa. We combine shared compute infrastructure at African partner sites, structured training, and a postdoctoral exchange for in-depth analytical collaborations with BNITM research groups.
Founding partners
- KCCR – Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana
- WACCBIP – West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
- We are currently seeking new partners
Scientific scope
The network covers the full breadth of infection biology and One Health research at its partner institutions, where data-driven approaches are becoming central. Key focus areas, in which partners and BNITM bring complementary expertise, include:
- Pathogen and host biology: pathogen genomics, single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, host-parasite interaction, structural and molecular parasitology, drug-target and vaccine discovery.
- Vector biology and arbovirology: vector-pathogen interactions, arbovirus metagenomics and evolution, entomology and vector control.
- Epidemiology and surveillance: disease surveillance, outbreak analytics, infections and climate dynamics, applied epidemiology and biostatistics, One Health disease control.
- Clinical and translational research: clinical trials, diagnostic developments, drug implementation, zoonoses, neglected diseases.
- Implementation and health systems: implementation research, health economics, health communication, medical anthropology.
What we are building together
- Regional compute hubs in West Africa, starting at WACCBIP (Accra) and KCCR (Kumasi), with further hubs planned as new partners join. Identical hardware and software environment at every hub, with central technical support from BNITM.
- Shared GPU and storage capacity, hosted at BNITM, for AI workloads: foundation models, large-scale single-cell analysis, epidemiological modelling at scale, accessible to all network members.
- Postdoctoral exchange programme: a structured two-year fellowship for African postdocs (preparation at home, intensive analysis year at BNITM embedded in a research group, mentored fellowship-writing, return phase for write-up and knowledge transfer). Open across the full scientific scope above, including epidemiology and biostatistics, not only NGS sequencing analysis.
- Annual two-week Summer School: data science training across the scope of the network: Linux, R, Python, NGS and RNA-seq analysis and single-cell. Free for network members in Africa, with certification and a train-the-trainer pathway. Potential workshops on geospatial analysis, epidemiological modelling and biostatistics.
- Grant-writing and collaboration support: feedback on funding applications, collaborative time on the central HPC, joint publications with BNITM groups.
What members gain
| African partner institutions | Individual scientists in Africa | BNITM and the broader network |
|---|---|---|
| Modern compute on-site, professionally maintained without local sysadmin burden. Capacity-building for staff and students across all data-driven fields. Visibility through joint publications. | Access to GPU and CPU infrastructure for own research. Free certified training covering wet-lab, computational and epidemiological data. Postdoctoral fellowship opportunity. Mentoring on funding applications. | A working operational model for tropical-disease and One Health data science. Strong African co-author networks. Pipeline of collaborative grants spanning the institute's full breadth. |
Governance
The network is steered jointly by its partner institutions and BNITM. Each hub has a named local scientific lead and a local bioinformatics lead. The bioinformatics leads of all hubs and of BNITM will form a standing Technical Committee that decides on the shared computing environment, the allocation of compute resources and the training programme. Central administration and software maintenance are provided by BNITM. Network direction is set jointly with a Scientific Advisory Board including African and international members. Hardware ownership is regulated in a Hosting Agreement with each partner institution. We intend ADOHNet to operate as a domain-specific affiliate of the African Bioinformatics Institute (ABI), not as a parallel structure.
Latest Updates
- We are currently requesting quotes for the hardware (09/26)
- We started the recruitment process for administrative support (09/26) - see advert.
- Sorting out some legal parts…
