Advancing Sustainable Animal Production and Biodiversity
13-04-26
“I can’t wait to start working with our African and European colleagues and see the first student exchanges take place. When those students graduate, I’ll know we’ve made a real impact,” says Grum Gebreyesus, coordinator of the project Advancing Sustainable Animal Production and Biodiversity.
By Vibeke Quaade
It’s a Wednesday afternoon in early March 2026, and the official approval for the partnership had landed in Grum Gebreyesus’ inbox that very morning, a partnership project designed to make cross-border work smoother, easier and, with good reason, more effective.
“That was lucky,” he laughs during our online interview, “for it’s precisely this kind of collaboration that’s needed,” he explains. By Saturday he will be on his way to Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to get the partnership project underway.
Co-creating agricultural education
Across much of Africa, universities operate in silos. Even institutions in the same city rarely collaborate, and student mobility is limited. Curricula in agricultural education often lag behind the latest advances in genomics, data science, sustainable livestock production, and One Health approaches.
At the same time, European universities, despite their technological strength, often lack practical knowledge about smallholder farming systems, their resilience to unpredictable climates and the social and economic realities of livestock-dependent communities.
“These gaps are complementary,” says Grum Gebreyesus, tenure track assistant professor at Aarhus University’s Center for Quantitative Genetics and Genomics, who is leading the project.
“African universities have invaluable knowledge about low-input systems, climate adaptation and community-based livestock management. European universities bring expertise in precision genetics, phenomics, AI and data-driven production systems. Together, we can co-create solutions that neither side could achieve alone.”
A welcome opportunity
For Gebreyesus, the decision to apply for a grant from the Knowledge and Innovation Programme was therefore an easy one.
Research rarely thrives in isolation. The same applies to teaching and the materials used in the lecture room. Both benefit from perspectives that go beyond what any single institution can offer. Knowledge needs to be challenged, explored and placed in new contexts to remain relevant.
The project has therefore been designed as a broad collaboration.
“It’s about co-developing curricula, exchanging lecturers, creating new teaching materials, enabling student mobility and strengthening institutional frameworks for collaboration,” he explains. “The aim is that everyone benefits – students, researchers and the institutions themselves.”
The partnership deliberately brings together both large, established universities and smaller institutions. While the larger universities often have stronger research infrastructures, the smaller ones frequently serve rural or underserved communities and bring valuable local perspectives.
“By linking them, we can share expertise and create more equitable opportunities for students and researchers,” Gebreyesus says.
The project includes a digital learning platform to support the collaboration by hosting teaching materials and enabling blended learning across institutions.
“We want open-access systems where teachers can upload content and students can engage with research and case studies,” he explains. “The materials should remain useful even after the project ends. It’s about sustainability.”
Grum Gebreyesus’ three tips for potential applicants for a Knowledge and Innovation partnership projects
1.Start early: Engage all partners from the beginning to build a shared understanding and smooth communication.
2.Use your faculty and institutions: Tap into existing resources and support at both faculty and institution levels.
3.Be flexible: Respect different cultures, priorities, and ways of working to make collaboration succeed.
Key facts about the Advancing Sustainable Animal Production and Biodiversity project
Project period: 2026 – 2032
Funding: Supported under Denmark’s Knowledge and Innovation Programme with a total grant of DKK 36 million / EUR 4.8 million
Scope: Covers student scholarships in Denmark over three years (including tuition, travel and living costs), curriculum development, joint teaching, and student and faculty mobility across partner institutions.
Participants: Involves 200+ African students and 15 core academic faculty members from the University of Nairobi, Muni University, Debre Berhan University, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology as well as guest lecturers and collaborators.
Filling the curriculum gaps
A core focus of the project is curriculum innovation. The team will develop new modules across five thematic areas, genomics, phenomics, nutrition and feeding systems, One Health approaches, and sustainable production systems including life-cycle analysis.
“These modules are designed to complement existing courses rather than replace them,” says Gebreyesus.
“African universities often lack access to advanced equipment, computational infrastructure and modern breeding and data-analysis tools. European universities, on the other hand, often lack insight into how smallholder systems adapt to harsh environments and unpredictable climates.”
By teaching together, faculty members exchange expertise while students gain exposure to both perspectives. An example is how genomics and phenomics are transforming livestock breeding. Researchers can now identify how traits such as milk production, disease resistance and climate adaptation are genetically controlled.
“Many African curricula still rely largely on traditional breeding methods and manual measurements,” Gebreyesus explains, “but with camera-based phenotyping, drone monitoring and AI, you can collect thousands of data points quickly and inexpensively. Students, whether European or African, need these sophisticated tools, but to use them properly, they must also understand how genetics interacts with local feed systems, climates and management practices.”
Learning from the field
For this reason, the practical knowledge of the African partners is just as important as the advanced technology.
Many smallholder farming systems are remarkably resilient to unpredictable climates, something researchers in Europe encounter less frequently in their highly controlled production systems.
“Climate change isn’t just a challenge in Africa,” says Gebreyesus, leaning forward, eager to get his point across. “African farmers have been adapting to variable climates for decades. Their knowledge about what works on marginal land with limited inputs is therefore extremely valuable. Understanding local adaptation is essential for developing sustainable solutions.”
He goes on to describe how past attempts to introduce high-yield Western breeds often failed, using the highly productive Holstein and Jersey cattle as an example. They were introduced into East African smallholder systems, but the farmers could not afford the feed they required, the veterinary care they needed, nor the infrastructure. Moreover, in many areas there was simply no market for the increased milk production. The cows died.
As Gebreyesus remarks,
“It was an expensive failure. Such breeds are highly productive in high-input systems, but they struggle in low-input environments. The lesson to be learnt from this is clear. Solutions must be co-created and adapted to local conditions.”
Building mobility and networks
Mobility is central to the project’s long-term impact.
Over the course of 6 years, the project will have 28 full-degree scholarships, 25 places for short-term study visit to Denmark lasting 3-5 months as well as 171 places for summer school students from Africa.
“Mobility trains people, sparks ideas, and builds networks of young researchers who will become future leaders,” says Gebreyesus, smiling as he reflects on the benefits that he himself gained from international exchange. He earned his master’s degree at Haramaya University in Ethiopia and later benefited from mobility as an Erasmus Mundus PhD student, before completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Aarhus University.
Initially, the student exchanges will be between African universities and Denmark. But the project also aims to lay the foundations for mobility between African institutions themselves.
“In some universities there isn’t even a dedicated mobility office yet,” he notes.
“Part of our work is creating the institutional frameworks that will make intra-African student exchanges easier and a common practice in the future.”
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