Talarify had been simmering as an idea since 2003 and was finally established in 2015. Before founding Talarify, Anelda worked in various positions at academic and research institutions in South Africa. In 2006 she joined the South African National Bioinformatics Institute as the University of the Western Cape Node manager of the National Bioinformatics Network. In 2010 she joined the Centre for Proteomics and Genomics Research as a bioinformatician and subsequently moved to Stellenbosch University as a lead bioinformatician. In 2014 Anelda joined the University of Cape Town’s eResearch team situated within UCT Information and Communication Services as eResearch analyst.
The golden thread that ran through all these positions was the realisation that researchers are generally unable to cope with ever-increasing data, modern research workflows that focus on reproducibility and openness, and the vast array of digital and computational tools that is needed to successfully participate in the global research community.
Although there are pockets of data science excellence within South African research, what is known as ‘the long tail’ - researchers who are not super-well funded or embedded in international collaborations - suffers from a lack of support, training, access to infrastructure, and mentorship. University research support divisions, such as IT, libraries, research and postgraduate offices, have limited capacity to support thousands of researchers and postgraduate students. Talarify addresses this niche gap. We work with academic and research institutions, government and NGOs, and the broader community, to support researchers at all career stages and in any discipline, to grow their digital and computational skills and enhance their research impact.
Our capacity development programs enable researchers to use digital and computational skills and tools in research to enhance their workflows, broaden the range of questions they can ask, gain access to open datasets, connect and collaborate with folks in other disciplines and sectors, and unlock novel funding opportunities.
