--- a
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+# ai_genomics
+
+## Setup
+
+- Meet the data science cookiecutter [requirements](http://nestauk.github.io/ds-cookiecutter/quickstart), in brief:
+  - Install: `git-crypt`, `direnv`, and `conda`
+  - Have a Nesta AWS account configured with `awscli`
+- Run `make install` to configure the development environment:
+  - Setup the conda environment
+  - Configure pre-commit
+  - Configure metaflow to use AWS
+
+## Dependencies
+
+Download spaCy's en_core_web_sm 3.1.0 pipeline:
+
+```bash
+pip install https://github.com/explosion/spacy-models/releases/download/en_core_web_sm-3.1.0/en_core_web_sm-3.1.0.tar.gz
+```
+
+## Contributor guidelines
+
+[Technical and working style guidelines](https://github.com/nestauk/ds-cookiecutter/blob/master/GUIDELINES.md)
+
+---
+
+<small><p>Project based on <a target="_blank" href="https://github.com/nestauk/ds-cookiecutter">Nesta's data science project template</a>
+(<a href="http://nestauk.github.io/ds-cookiecutter">Read the docs here</a>).
+</small>