Many geoscientists across the globe and particularly Africa are looking forward to this year’s 30th Colloquium of African Geology (CAG30) in Nairobi September 23-27, 2025, a prestigious global event that brings together geoscientists, industry leaders, researchers, and policymakers to explore Africa’s geological wealth. Hosted by the Geological Society of Kenya (GSK) and the Geological Society of Africa (GSAf), this event marks 50 years of GSK and 60 years of CAG, promising an exciting convergence of expertise and innovation. The theme of this year’s conference is Unveiling Africa’s Geological Resources: Forging a Path for Sustainable Development.

DDE and GeoGPT will have a very strong presence at the conference as an official sponsor and as the host of a one day workshop on the DDE Platform and GeoGPT, a Business Meeting at which experts will discuss collaboration  on AI and data platforms in Africa, and several academic talks. In addition several African experts will be talking  eloquently about the value of DDE Platform and GeoGPT, which are both free and open platforms for anyone to use.

Expert applications Shadrach Sheriff in Nigeria

First we have Shadrach Sheriff. Shadrach is an expert in computing, GIS and the application of AI in geoscience challenges in Africa including critical minerals. Shadrach has been working with DDE Platform and GeoGPT for around 2 years and has developed many applications (see Shadrach’s LinkedIn page). He also recently, visited some of the labs that developed DDE Platform and GeoGPT in China for a series of strategic engagements. Shadrach is  President of the NIGERIAN MINING AND GEOSCIENCES SOCIETY – Young Professionals (NMGS-YP), so he’s particularly interested not only in African geoscience challenges but also opportunities for early-career geoscientists in Africa and beyond.

Shadrach’s journey began at Zhejiang University, where he joined the DDE team to discuss platform enhancements and plans for global conferences like CAG30 in Nairobi and GSA Connects 2025 in San Antonio. Shadrach also phoned in to the June 12 SaltAGES meeting, where he and other experts showcased DDE’s impact in democratizing geoscience data through open science and displaying use cases valuable for researchers and early career professionals. He also presented some geospatial  projects he’s been developing  at the Second Institute of Oceanography (SIO), Ministry of Natural Resources and joined a two-day mapping exercise with the Zhejiang Geological Survey Team, led by Prof. Zhu Kong Yang.  In Kunshan, he attended a DDE meeting and met the Chair of DDE Governing Council, Prof. Harvey Thorleifson, Chair of the DDE Executive Committee, Prof. Qiuming Cheng. and Secretariat staff and representatives of some Working and Task Groups."

A visit to Zhejiang Lab, home of GeoGPT, with Prof. James Ogg offered insight into geoscientific AI. Having tested GeoGPT before its May 2025 launch, Shadrach was impressed by its evolution and potential to reshape geoscience education and research.

Shadrach will be presenting two of his applied use cases at the CAG in Nairobi, Kenya, during the GeoGPT/Deep-time Digital Earth workshop. His talks are titled: Large Language Models for Geospatial Analysis, and Advancing Exploration: Integrating Cloud Computing for Strategic Minerals.

Expert applications: Dr Kamaldeen O Omosanya on GIS

Another expert who has been deeply involved in the implementation of GeoGPT and the DDE Platform in African applications and challenges is Dr Kamaldeen O Omosanya. Dr Omosanya is a UK-trained Nigerian GIS expert, geologist and entrepreneur who has been quick to see the value of open platforms like GeoGPT and the DDE Platform. As well as working on projects he has produced some interesting YouTube videos which show GeoGPT in action:

No GIS Skills? Create Maps Instantly with GeoGPT Map Generator

From Zero to Genius: Watch GeoGPT Generate Novel Research Ideas

GeoGPT Map Chat -AI Powered Tool for Geological Map Analysis

Dr  Omosanya is a multidisciplinary geoscientist and research strategist driving innovation at the intersection of subsurface science, digital technology, and sustainable development. Like geoscientists at the GeoGPT and the DDE Platform, he is passionate about decolonizing earth science through inclusive innovation and promoting STEM and the SDGs.

The road ahead

Finally GeoGPT and the DDE Platform will be presenting some work that has recently been published in the Geological Society journal Geoenergy. The paper – the result of a year’s work on the bibliometrics of geoscience in energy transition has some sobering findings that show that Africa has been held back in geoscience for many years and so is underrepresented in the global geoscience area particularly in some key geoscience energy transition areas.

The population of Africa is growing at a rate of over 2.3% per year, the highest rate of growth among the continents, and it contained the world's 20 fastest-growing economies in 2024. Its economy is partly driven by its large resources of minerals, oil, and diamonds, and its rapidly growing population. Geoscience research, knowledge and application will be vital for the sustainable use of these resources. But our bibliometric analysis through 2014-2024 reveals that Africa is underrepresented in elements of geoscience research for the energy transition (CCS, critical minerals, geothermal), as well as in advanced data science, for example machine learning and artificial intelligence, both of which are likely to form a part of the geoscience solutions to energy transition challenges.  This representation is shown in terms of the small number of papers published on Africa, and more crucially those on Africa that are led by Africa-based researchers. The situation could be improved by provision of competitive salaries for African academics, as well as encouraging foreign researchers to develop collaborators in Africa, including building more sustainability and less dependency into African research funding. Aid ‘paternalism’ can be counteracted by schemes that encourage local agency, and capacity building in Africa.

As well as better salaries the paper’s authors encourage foreign researchers to make more serious efforts to develop collaborators in Africa, including building more sustainability and less dependency into African research funding mechanisms. Even now papers published by western scientists on African challenges often have no African co-authors, or only co-authors at the end of the list. Geological departments in Western Universities publish paper after paper but have no African collaborators and no presence in Africa.  DDE and GeoGPT  aim at providing agency to African and other Global South geoscientists by allowing free access to online data and computing tools. The time is right to allow African geoscientists to forge ahead rather than relying on others. Think of this quote from the great Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe

If you don’t like someone's story, write your own

DDE and GeoGPT are trying to help with that!