African Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics & Data Intensive Sciences - Uganda

The African Centers of Excellence in Bioinformatics and Data Intensive Sciences (ACE) are a consortium of research and training centers facilitated by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in collaboration with research institutions, African governments, private sector companies, and the Foundation for the NIH (FNIH). ACE delivers and maintains high performance computing infrastructure, distance learning facilities, and training to collaborating research and academic institutions through a public-private partnership based on in-kind contributions. NIAID has extensive experience supporting global research institutions in infrastructure challenged regions. In the early 2000’s, collaborative centers called the International Centers for Excellence in Research (ICERs) were established in Mali and Uganda to conduct clinical research in malaria, as well as HIV and other emerging and re-emerging pathogens. The ICERs provide researchers working with NIH scientists with mentoring, compute resources, and the laboratory tools necessary for modern biomedical research. The proven success of the ICER program is the foundation for the public-private partnership that led to the establishment of the ACE centers.