The 12th Technical and Advisory meeting for the Eastern and Southern Africa Higher Education Centres of Excellence (ACE II) project will be held virtually from 6th to 9th December 2021. The ACE II project is financed by the World Bank and coordinated by the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA). ACE II meetings are held biannually to facilitate knowledge-sharing and network building among the 24 Africa Centres of Excellence (ACEs).

The 12th meeting will be the fourth to be held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. Before the pandemic the meetings were held on rotation in the eight project participating countries of Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.

The meeting will dwell on the following:

• A framework for private sector – university collaboration and an overview of the different types of private sector partnerships
• Post-doctoral programs: issues and opportunities for research and innovation
• International accreditation of programs and the status of the development of a reginal accreditation framework.
• Commercialization of research.
• Setting up of an academic network in the project priority areas of Agriculture, Health, Water/Energy and Industry, and how it can be developed and sustained for the future.

The ACEs are addressing specific development challenges facing the region in one of the five priority areas in the region – industry, agriculture, health, education and applied statistics – through graduate training (Master’s, PhD, and short-term courses) and applied research, and to develop and strengthen partnerships and collaborations with other national, regional and international institutions and the private sector.