African Academy of Sciences (AAS) was founded in 1985 and is headquartered in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. It is a pan-African, non-political, non-profit organization of professional scientists, with the vision of transforming lives in Africa through science. The current President is Professor Lise Korsten of South Africa.  

The three core functions of AAS are: 1) to recognize excellence through its renowned Fellowship and awards; 2) to serve as a think tank providing advice for the formulation of Africa’s science, technology and innovation (STI) strategies and policies; and 3) to implement STI programs and projects to address Africa’s development challenges.

AAS’s STI strategy focuses on five priority areas: environment and climate change; health and well-being; the natural sciences; policy and governance; and the social sciences and humanities.

AAS elects Fellows of the African Academy of Sciences (FAAS) to recognize outstanding scientists from Africa and around the world, with selection criteria including publications, innovation, leadership, and contributions to policy. There are currently 460 Fellows, grouped as Founding Fellows, Honorary Fellows, Foreign Fellows, and Fellows. Their roles include supporting AAS programs, advising governments on sound investment in science across the continent, serving as reviewers for AAS-funded projects, and mentoring early-career scientists.

AAS maintains four major platforms:

an open research publishing platform that enables AAS-funded and affiliated researchers to publish rapidly with open review;  

(2) the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA), AAS’s program-delivery platform co-created with the African Union Development Agency–NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD), which provides funding and agenda-setting to advance African STI programs;  

(3) the Coalition for African Research and Innovation (CARI), a sustainability platform established with partners to accelerate STI initiatives across Africa;  

(4) the Global Grant Community (GGC), centered on the Good Financial Grant Practice (GFGP) Standard, which streamlines and strengthens financial governance of grants through standardized best practices.  

On 13 January 2023, the AAS Asia Regional Office was established in Beijing to advance China–Africa talent exchange and cooperation in science and technology.  

To date, 13 scientists from China have been elected AAS Fellows, spanning crop breeding, infectious-disease control, neuroscience, satellite navigation and remote sensing, entomology and pest management, water treatment, and molecular biology, including Wu Kongming (President of CAAS), Kang Le (former President of Hebei University), Gao Fu (Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences), Yang Huanming (BGI), Professor Zhang Linqi (School of Medicine, Tsinghua University), Professor Cao Jinde (Southeast University), Professor Li Fengting (Tongji University), Professor Zhang Fusuo and Professor Shen Jianbo (China Agricultural University), among others.