In 2021, Kühne Logistics University supported by the Kühne Foundation secured a funding of 2.2 Million Euros over five years from DAAD for the new Centre of African Excellence for Sustainable Operations for Ressource Management and Food Supply (SCO). The Center is operating jointly with the University of Nairobi (UoN) in Kenya and the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) in Tanzania.

The highly transdisciplinary Center empowers sustainable operations related to production, movement, and processing of food and other natural resources as well the people needed along the supply chain. It addresses practitioners, students and graduates of business schools just the same as those of other disciplines, like medicine, agriculture, engineering, and humanitarian. The Center harnesses previous and ongoing funding of the Kühne Foundation which has helped establish Bachelor’s, Master’s and PhD degree programs in business with a specialization in logistics and operations management at seven different universities in Africa, among them UoN and UDSM. The goals of the new centre include the establishment of  new Master Programs in Business Research (MBR) and Sustainable Management and Operations (SMO) at UoN and UDSM, an own PhD scholarship program, regular summer schools for students and strengthening exchange between universities through exchange and visits, including guest lectures.