African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS)

The African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) is Africa’s first network of centres of excellence in mathematical sciences. It enables the continent’s youth to shape the continent’s future through Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) education - training Africa’s next generation of leaders. Professor Neil Turok, an Imperial College London alum, founded AIMS in Cape Town in 2003. The AIMS institutes focus on both basic and applied mathematics, covering a large range of mathematical applications in physics, quantitative biology, bioinformatics, scientific computing, finance, agriculture modelling, and many others.

There are AIMS centres in 

• Cameroon
• Ghana
• Rwanda
• Senegal
• South Africa

Imperial became an AIMS partner in February 2020, with the occasion marked by a launch event in London with President and CEO of AIMS, Thierry Zoumahoun, and Founder of AIMS and Imperial alumnus, Professor Neil Turok.

Being an AIMS partner enables academics and students to undertake research visits and networking activities at any of the six AIMS institutes.  These visits enable staff who have started to develop links to deepen their networks and form firm proposals for joint future activity.

AIMS and Imperial have developed a variety of collaboration links in areas such as statistics, public health, machine learning and climate change, and the agreement has been fostering further partnerships.

Student Mobility

• Global Fellows Programme: professional skills development programme for PhD students from AIMS Centres and Imperial. The programme took place in November 2023 at AIMS Research and Innovation Centre, Kigali, Rwanda and in November 2024 at AIMS Ghana, Accra, Ghana. In Summer 2025, AIMS students will be hosted at Imperial.
• Global Fellows Fund: PhD students from Imperial have undertaken research placement at AIMS Research and Innovation Centre in Rwanda and AIMS South Africa.
• Global Development Hub Fellows Fund: research placements for PhD students from Least Developed and Lower Middle-Income Countries at Imperial, with PhD students from AIMS Cameroon and AIMS Rwanda having taken part.

Seed Funding

Imperial offers small grants towards a variety of education and research projects to its staff to facilitate collaboration with AIMS.

• Workshops with AIMS Research and Innovation Centre in Rwanda in the areas of Geospatial Analytics, Applied Epidemiology, and AI in Science​
• Research visits to AIMS South Africa with a focus on Machine Learning and Biodiversity, and Fundamental Mathematics
• AI and Data Science conference at AIMS Cameroon, in partnership with AIMS Research and Innovation Centre, Rwanda

More information about seed funding opportunities is available on the International Seed Funds webpage.

Collaborative Teaching

Imperial academics have taught short courses at all AIMS Centres. 

• Dr Marc Deisenroth delivered a module on Foundations of Machine Learning at AIMS Rwanda​
• Dr Michele Coti Zelati delivered a module on Applied PDEs (Modelling) at AIMS Senegal
• Professor Maria-Gloria Basanez delivered An Introduction to Dynamic Models of Infectious Diseases at AIMS Cameroon​

Our colleagues also supervise Master's projects at AIMS. Supervision can take place virtually, and topics cover a variety of areas, from data science and fundamental mathematics to agriculture and biodiversity.

Large-Scale Projects

• Kigali City Air Pollution Monitoring Campaign: a comprehensive environmental dataset of high spatial and temporal resolution for noise and air pollution in Kigali city to and the development of mathematical models for air pollution forecasting
• CLARITY Project: generating and implementing transdisciplinary expertise, knowledge, tools, policies, and practices that make African cities (Kigali, Musanze, Accra and Tamale) more resilient to the adverse health effects of climate change and enhancing environmental health equity
• Eric and Wendy Schmidt AI in Science Global Faculty Fellowships: the Fellowship will assist talented faculty members from global partner institutions, including AIMS, to use AI to enhance their scientific research, while also building sustained local capacity at their home institutions

Staff Capacity Building

In November 2024, AIMS Research and Innovation, Rwanda partnered with Imperial's People and Organisational Development Team to deliver week-long staff training in Kigali. The programme focused on a variety of skills essential to personal and professional growth, such as Personal Effectiveness, Collaborative Working, Leadership Development, and Cultural Awareness. You can read more about this project in the POD Newsletter.