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The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), in partnership with the government of Rwanda, has launched AIMS Rwanda. The AIMS, now consisting of six centres of excellence (South Africa, Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon, Tanzania and Rwanda), has three strategic pillars, namely training, research and public engagement.

AIMS Rwanda was launched in Kigali on Monday by President Paul Kagame. The first AIMS centre was founded in Cape Town in 2003 by Professor Neil Turok, a renowned South African physicist.  The network's mission is to enable Africa's brightest students to flourish as independent thinkers, problem solvers and innovators capable of propelling future scientific, educational and economic self-sufficiency on the continent.

"We are collaborating with AIMS to develop an ecosystem of pan-African institutions with a transformative agenda. We all recognise that AIMS' education model is an important tool for development & progress on our continent," President Kagame said.

AIMS Rwanda will operate a number of programmes, including the Quantum Leap Africa (QLA), Africa's first research centre in quantum science. The centre will be based in Kigali.

AIMS’s ecosystem supports researchers who are tackling research topics that challenge fundamental concepts and high-end research. The network seeks for opportunities to leverage mathematical sciences to contribute to African economies through human capital, knowledge transfer and applied research for scientific and technological excellence. The AIMS's Teacher Training Programme strengthens the mathematics teachers' capacity and provides students in Africa with quality education in maths and science.

"We are thrilled to have partnered with the government of Rwanda to continue to nurture Africa's most talented scientific minds in mathematical sciences, creating opportunities to allow them to contribute to the continent by tangibly developing solutions to Africa's problems, and fostering collaboration that will reverse the brain drain of our thinkers, problem-solvers and innovators," said Thierry Zomahoun, President and CEO of AIMS.

Rwanda will also host the second edition of the Next Einstein Forum (NEF), the first global science forum in Africa, in 2018, according to Kagame. The forum, which is part of AIMS, seeks to continue to showcase the progress Africa is making in science. The first edition of NEF held in Dakar, Senegal, in 2016.