RWANDA – The Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain (ACES) in Rwanda, has received a £9.5 million (US$9.5m) funding boost from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) of UK.

ACES was established in 2020 by the Governments of Rwanda (GoR) and the United Kingdom (UK), UNEP’s United for Efficiency initiative, the Centre for Sustainable Cooling, and a range of academic institutions i.e., University of Rwanda, University of Birmingham, Cranfield University, London South Bank University and Heriot Watt University.

The project is dedicated to sustainable, smart cold chain, cooling and post-harvest management in Africa aimed to help African farmers’ get produce to market quickly and efficiently, reducing food waste, increasing profits and creating jobs.

The new funding secures work at ACES until 2025 by supporting further recruitment of lecturers, technicians and research associates on the ACES campus in Kigali, Rwanda.

It also backs development of early-stage researcher and supervised PhD research programmes.

In addition to that, the support will fund additional equipment to help further explore clean cold-chains for food and health and aid in the roll-out of further Specialized Outreach and Knowledge Establishment (SPOKE) hubs to share knowledge, technology demonstration and capacity building into other African markets – building on the first SPOKE being developed in Kenya.

Through this, ACES programmes will enable communities to build key cold-chain and cooling services using novel technologies; and support development of a strong network of skilled refrigeration engineers – supporting the transition to climate-friendly refrigerants.

Project lead Professor Toby Peters, Director, Centre for Sustainable Cooling at the University of Birmingham, says, “Our work enables Africa’s communities to discover and unlock their economic potential and build cold-chain services for resilient and sustainable development.

“ACES can help to ensure that fresh produce reaches domestic and international consumers in its best condition, while reducing emissions, preserving natural resources and increasing farmers’ income.

“Also, energy-efficient and sustainable cold logistics will help to reduce vaccine waste – this is important for traditional vaccines and health needs, but vital as we look to deploy new mRNA vaccines requiring sub-zero and potentially ultra-cold cold-chains.”

Total UK funding to date for the programme is more than £16 million (US$16m) which includes funding to provide the technical assistance to support the development of its second Centre of Excellence in Hyderabad, India, working with the Gov of Telangana.

Centre for Sustainable Cooling, UNEP organize cold-chain summit

Meanwhile, the Centre for Sustainable Cooling, in partnership with United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), is organising a study tour to the UK in September for its Rwandan and Kenyan partners, which culminates in an international cold-chain summit at the University of Birmingham on 29 September.

Participants will include high level government officials from Rwanda Environment Management Authority, Rwanda Biomedical Centre, and National Agricultural Export Development Board.

There will also be representatives of University of Rwanda, Integrated Polytechnic Regional College Kigali, and African Centre for Technology Studies (Kenya).

Delegates will visit cold-stores, ACES partner Cranfield University as well as Birmingham Energy Innovation Centre at Tyseley Energy Park.

This will help to build collaboration from BEIC to ACES and a corridor to the Africa market for UK clean cooling and refrigeration technology and service providers and innovators.

The international cold-chain summit will see research, industry and government partners from the UK, EU and Africa coming together to share knowledge and discuss how best to create sustainable, equitable and resilient cold-chains for food and health globally.

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