AIMS, the brainchild of Neil Turok, director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, in Canada, was founded in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2003 as a pan-African centre for postgraduate training and research, providing advanced, broadly applicable mathematical skills to talented students.
A second branch of the institute is set to open in Senegal in September. It was announced in May that the third institute will open in Ghana in September 2012.
The Next Einstein Initiative, a programme set up by AIMS-South Africa to oversee to the setting up of 15 such institutes across Africa, will part-fund the Ethiopian institute. Ethiopia is expected to provide matching funds for construction and also provide the running costs after start-up.
Since 2003, more than 300 students from 31 African countries have received postgraduate degrees from AIMS-South Africa. And in the past six years four Ethiopians per year, on average, have received scholarships from the institute.
Ultimately it is hoped that there will be 15 such centres of excellence across Africa.
