The Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) is a funding and agenda setting platform seeking to address Africa’s health and developmental challenges by promoting the development of Africa’s research leadership, scientific excellence and innovation.

AESA is focused on supporting people, places, and programmes, which translates to supporting the best minds in Africa, working in conducive research environments, to implement programmes that produce quality and relevant data, and innovations that have the potential to impact health and developmental challenges on the continent and globally. The platform also regularly evaluates and measures the impact of the investments it and its partners are making in Africa. AESA also functions as a policy and advocacy think tank, setting, aligning and ensuring an Africa-led, Africa-centred, and Africa-relevant science agenda for the continent.

Mission

AESA’s guiding philosophy is to support the brightest people in Africa, working in the right places and environments, to implement key programmes that can foster scientific excellence, leadership and innovations that impact health and developmental challenges.

AAS and NEPAD

The African Academy of Sciences (AAS) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency created AESA with the support of the Wellcome Trust, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). This was to implement Resolution 10 of the Declarations, Decisions and Resolutions from the January 2015 African Union Heads of State Summit endorsing the creation of AESA as a platform to encourage the creation of health innovations for poor communities.

AESA supports initiatives in all areas of science, relevant to Africa and the AAS’s six science, technology and innovation areas of focus. The funding platform does this by:

• Funding and managing entire grant cycles to support research initiatives being implemented in partnership with pan African and international organisations
• Providing support to the scientific community through a range of workshops and mentorship programmes to develop their ideas and careers
• Setting and aligning the science agenda for the African continent
• Building good research management and financial practices
• Implementing programmes to develop research leadership and impact the growth of Africa. Programmes falling under AESA are the Developing Excellence in Leadership, Training and Science (DELTAS) Africa, Grand Challenges Africa (GC Africa), Climate Impacts Research Capacity and Leadership Enhancement (CIRCLE), Human Hereditary and Health in Africa (H3Africa), Good Grant Financial Practice (GFGP) and Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM).