Developing Data Literacy Competences at University: the experience of the DEDALUS project

Nowadays, data are everywhere becoming more and more important in everyday life. Recently, during the COVID-19 outbreak, data are being used on a massive scale, and having the skills to understand the information conveyed through numbers, percentages and trends curves became essential. From this perspective, data literacy is a competence not only important for those operating in computer science or technological sectors, but it is acquiring a key role in other sectors such as social science, humanities, and journalism. In this paper, we present the DEDALUS project, an EU-funded project aimed at developing data literacy courses for university students. DEDALUS defined a competence framework that identifies a set of competences related to data literacy, to which modular university courses in different disciplines are based upon. The outcomes of the project were piloted in 5 European countries in order to define the implementation strategies that identifies different models of data literacy inclusion in the higher education domain.

Agriculture 4.0: An Implementation Framework for Food Security Attainment in Nigeria's Post-Covid-19 Era

The challenge of Nigeria's food insecurity in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic, insecurity, climate change, population growth, food wastage, etc., is a demanding task. This study addresses Nigeria's food insecurity challenges by adopting agriculture 4.0 and commercial farming. Using data from six digital libraries, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics, and other internet sources, we conducted a Systematic Literature Review (SLR using PRISMA) on Nigeria's agriculture, food security, and agriculture 4.0. Our results show Nigeria's current agricultural state, threats to food security, and modern digital agriculture technologies. We adapted our SLR findings to develop an implementation framework for agriculture 4.0 in solving Nigeria's food insecurity challenge in the post-Covid-19 era. Our proposed framework integrates precision agriculture in Nigeria's food production and the necessary enabling digital technologies in the agri-food supply chain. We analyzed the critical implementation considerations during each agri-food supply chain stage of farming inputs, farming scale, farming approach, farming operation, food processing, food preservation/storage, distribution/logistics, and the final consumers. This study will help researchers, investors, and the government address food security in Nigeria. The implementation of agriculture 4.0 will substantially contribute to SDG 2 (zero hunger), SDG 3 (good health and well-being), and SDG 8 (decent work and economic growth) of #Envision 2030 of the United Nations, for the benefit of Nigeria, Africa, and the entire world.