University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN)

University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in South Africa is a leading African institution with a rich heritage of academic excellence, emphasizing research, teaching, and community engagement. Its centennial celebration in 2010 marked a century of scholarly achievement and innovation.  The Centre for Transformative Agricultural and Food Systems (CTAFS) at UKZN was established to build resilient and sustainable healthy food systems through transdisciplinary research. This derives from a realisation that food and nutrition security is a complex and multi-faceted challenge that calls for collaborative and transdisciplinary approaches. Through programmes linked to international and national funding, the CTAFS conducts transdisciplinary research that informs policy and practice. The CTAFS, through its collaborative local, regional, and international research, aims to identify opportunities for implementation/action research that will lead to measurable improvement in human wellbeing and livelihoods, scaled from the local community level to Africa more broadly. The CTAFS also focuses on research, including food and nutrition security, climate change adaptation and mitigation, crop improvement, food systems, water-energy-food nexus, and the circular economy.