Millicent Kyei

Following the success of the first phase of the ACE Project, the World Bank and governments of participating countries recognized the need to escalate the success and expand the benefits accrued to the Centres and their countries. Consequently, the third phase of the Project titled the ACE for Development Impact (or simply ACE
Impact) has been approved by World Bank. There are 12 participating countries; including Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ghana, Guinea, Senegal, The Gambia, Togo, Niger and Nigeria.
ACE Impact seeks to increase the quality and relevance of post- graduate education in selected universities through regional specialization, applied research, upfront university-industry linkage and better regional and international
coordination.

In September this year, a Call for Proposals was advertised in national newspapers in the participating countries. Subsequently, a hundred and ten (110) proposals were submitted to AAU by the higher education agencies of participating countries consisting of new and renewal proposals (from existing ACEs).

These proposals were carefully reviewed by experts in the various thematic fields of Health, Agriculture, Environment, Social Sciences and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Following the desk and remote panel evaluations, 65 proposals were shortlisted, and onsite visits were undertaken to the higher educational institutions which submitted them. The goal was to find out more about the institutions in terms of their readiness and commitment to host the potential Centres of Excellence.

To finalize the process will be the selection of the ACE Impact Centres of Excellence by the Project Steering Committee at its meeting at the AAU Secretariat, Accra, Ghana on November 2, 2018