This is the twentieth in the series of short statements from candidates in the coming CODATA Elections at the General Assembly to be held on 17-18 October 2025. Audrey Masizana is a candidate for the CODATA Executive Committee as an Ordinary Member. She was nominated by Botswana.
Affiliation:
- Institution: University of Botswana
- City: Gaborone
- Country: Botswana
- Role: Senior Scholar, University of Botswana
Nationality of Candidate: Botswana
I, Audrey Masizana have been a member of Executive Committee of the CODATA since 2021. I hold a PhD in Computer Science from University of Manchester UK (2004). I am also a fellow of Botswana Academy of Sciences (FBAS) since 2021 and this year in 2025 have been elected as Vice President of the Academy. I also serve as Global Health International Scholar of University of Pennsylvania, USA (2023-2026).
I am a very passionate advocate of Open Data and Open Science Policies and Practices locally and across the continent and to that effect I currently chaired the development of the Botswana National Open Data Policy established by the Botswana Presidential Task Force (Smart Bots) in March 2021, which is now awaiting approval by Botswana Cabinet.
I have over the years gained enormous experience in spear heading academic networking platforms including chairing conferences such as Information Technology for Development (IASTED Africa 2014, 2016), International Conference in Cyber-Security and Information systems conference series referenced in ICICIS 2016 and here. Also chairing the Local Organising Committees of the International Data Week (IDW 2018) in Botswana and the Viz Africa conferences delivered in collaboration with CODATA, World Data Systems (WDS) and Research Data Alliance (RDA).
I also continue to support and contribute to the implementations of the African Open Science Platform (AOSP) having been a member of technical advisory committee while it was being established in 2017. I strongly believe its delivery will improve on policy front across the continent.
I currently serve as a Project Investigator on behalf of University of Botswana on several interdisciplinary projects aligned to my research area in Scientific Application of Data. These include
- Towards Open Science Communities Development in Sub-Saharan Africa Region, OSCAR 2.0 European Commission (EU) (2024 -2026)
- Development of eHealth Enterprise Architecture for Botswana, Global Health Sciences at the University of California San Francisco-PEPFAR 2024
- Evaluating Healthcare Data Collection, Sharing and Use in Botswana. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Global Health Pilot Grant 2020
- Development of a machine learning-based model for COVID-19 Mortality Prediction in Botswana (2022-2026)
My contribution to CODATA as an executive member has been largely on advocacy across the African continent on its mission and implementation strategy. This advocacy has led to the establishment of the newly formed Botswana CODATA National Committee which I am currently leading in developing its own strategy. I therefore wish to continue to serve to see to the end of this strategy and how it can be reused by other countries who have yet to establish their national committee across the continent.