APBA/ABI Joint Agri-informatics ‘Bring Your Own Data’ (BYOD) Hackathon 2026

Hackathon overview

Advances in genome sequencing technology and bioinformatics are revolutionizing crop improvement by enabling faster, more accurate, and cost-effective breeding. However, many breeding programmes across Africa continue to face significant capacity gaps in translating genomic data into actionable breeding decisions. These challenges are often linked not to data generation, but to limitations in data analysis, interpretation, and reporting.

Recognizing this gap, the African Plant Breeders Association (APBA), in partnership with the African Bioinformatics Institute (ABI), is expanding its efforts to strengthen practical genomics and bioinformatics capacity among plant breeders. This collaboration builds on the success of a recent genomics and bioinformatics data hackathon, which demonstrated strong demand for hands-on, data-driven support and resulted in tangible analytical and publication outcomes for participating researchers.

To extend the reach and impact of this approach, APBA and ABI are jointly convening the ‘APBA/ABI Agri-informatics Bring Your Own Data Hackathon’, designed to support a broader cohort of breeders and researchers in analyzing, interpreting, and reporting genomics-related datasets. The hackathon model emphasizes collaborative problem-solving, mentorship, and real-world data analysis, with the goal of accelerating the translation of genomic data into improved crop varieties and strengthening publication output across African breeding programmes.

Credential awarded:

 Hackathon certificate

Application Info

Prerequisites

• Participants should be actively working in, or studying towards a degree in, the agricultural sector.
• Participants should have existing datasets that they can access and bring to the workshop for hands-on analysis.
• Participants should have basic familiarity with the Unix command line and some experience using R or Python for data analysis.

Who’s involved?

Workshop Sponsors: 

African Plant Breeders Association; African Bioinformatics Institute

Intended Audience: 

This hackathon is aimed at senior postgraduate students (MSc, PhD), postdoctoral researchers, researchers, and academic staff in the agricultural sciences who have existing biological or genomic datasets and wish to advance these data through analysis, interpretation, synthesis, and publication.

Learning objectives/ outcomes: 

After this hackathon participants should be able to:

• Participants should be actively working in, or studying towards a degree in, the agricultural sector.
• Participants should have existing datasets that they can access and bring to the workshop for hands-on analysis.
• Participants should have basic familiarity with the Unix command line and some experience using R or Python for data analysis.

Ready to Apply?