Rwandan Delegates and the Africa Centre of Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain (ACES) Project team are participating in a high-level strategic tour in the United Kingdom with the lead funder and experts towards the operationalization of the ACES, hosted in Rwanda to benefit the African Continent.

The four-day tour (from 26^th February to 1^st March 2023) presents an opportunity to Rwandan delegates to engage with senior government officials, academics, and partner organizations to strategically guide investments in the ACES and its Specialized Outreach and Knowledge Establishment (SPOKE) in Rwanda and throughout Africa.

The ACES will help get farmers’ produce to market quickly and efficiently, thus reducing food waste, boosting profits and creating jobs as well as look to improve cold-chains for vaccines and health.

The delegates will visit and tour the University of Birmingham, the National Institute for Health and Care Research /Wellcome Clinical Research Facility, Birmingham Energy Institute, as well as the National Robotarium, hosted at Heriot-Watt University.

The delegates include Juliet Kabera, Director General of the Rwanda Environment Management Authority (REMA), Prof. Claude Mambo MUVUNYI, Director General of the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), Claude Bizimana, Chief Executive Officer of NAEB, Dr. Sylvie Mucyo, Vice Chancellor of Rwanda Polytechnic and Dr. Alice Ikuzwe, Deputy Principal of IPRC – Kigali

The tour will be an opportunity to underpin the foundational Government to Government and Academia to Academia relationships; explore and pursue priority academic collaboration, student exchanges, and joint research areas; open up new opportunities with industry and other partners; help underpin major grant funding bids (i.e. for a new Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) Vaccine Manufacturing and Logistics Research Hub); review and finalize critical plans for the opening and scale-up of ACES Headquarter and the first SPOKEs; and fast-track investments and operations of ACES to reach intended impacts in communities.