ACES - A review of 2025

Recently we had to write the final report to the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) on the first phase of our partnership to establish and grow The Africa Centre for Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain (ACES). Running to more than 30 plus pages of facts, figures, and dry formal descriptions reporting progress on more than 20 work packages, the task was something I had not been looking forward to tackling. However, to my surprise, what I had expected to be a week of utter drudgery turned into an exciting period of reflection on the enthusiastic, passionate and dedicated team of people that has been gathered together in ACES and how, collectively, we have rapidly turned an idea into reality. In doing so, we are not only delivering on the vision for ACES but also demonstrating that Rwanda can lead the world in developing innovative, climate-resilient, and inclusive cold-chains that other countries will increasingly look to for guidance.

ACES was created to advance sustainable refrigeration, cold-chain management, and renewable energy solutions across Rwanda and the African continent. And in a very short space of time, through the exceptional dedication and hard work of the team, it has moved from a precarious nascent state to a fully functional, credible, and growing institution with national and international visibility. We are now well underway on a journey to becoming a highly respected and effective regional hub for training, innovation, knowledge, expertise, research, and community focussed collaboration, addressing critical challenges in food security, public health, climate resilience, and capacity development with a gender-inclusive approach. As I reflected on our progress to-date, one thing was crystal clear to me, that without the highly professional, “can-do” focussed attitude of all the team to the challenges we have faced, none of this would be possible.

In 2025 alone, more than 30 people from a wide range of backgrounds and disciplines have joined us to enhance our capabilities, including technical directors, researchers, lecturers, operations managers, finance and procurement specialists, and maintenance personnel. In addition to these onboarded colleagues, we have put in place a strategic network of targeted consultants with specialised expertise in communications, process development, and logistics. Adding further to this expanding team, we have also provided two Internships to students from the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA), each undertaking six-month placements with ACES. We have also recently been asked to take on further secondees from other Universities in Rwanda. Integrating all of these new colleagues into the team has at times been disruptive and challenging, but with total professionalism, finesse, and a universally inclusive outlook, always welcoming, collegiate, and seamless. This scale and pace of recruitment is exceptional for a centre at our stage of maturity, and it has required not only operational agility but also a shared commitment to building a culture of excellence, respect, and continuous learning. I want to acknowledge how deliberately and thoughtfully everyone at ACES have nurtured that culture - it is already one of ACES’ many strong assets.

Of course, to enable this rapid growth in recruitment we have had to quickly establish and operationalise a robust, useable, efficient business infrastructure of finance, human resource (HR), duty of care and safeguarding, monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL), and health as safety functions. These are now backed up with more than 200 standard operating procedures (SOPs), reporting systems, manuals and handbooks. We have also had to organise relevant training for those joining us, as well as some already with us, and beyond our in-country on-site expert-led mentorship, some of this has been delivered in the UK, strengthening practical skills in refrigeration, cold-chain technologies, solar energy, and operational management. And I am very proud to say that, during this challenging period of growth driven change, there were no compliance incidents reported.

Putting in place the workplace so we have somewhere to work!

Building our team is one thing, but we need somewhere to work and facilities to use! To this end, 2025 has seen significant development of our Kigali campus, with new buildings added, refurbishments undertaken, infrastructure deficiencies rectified, and capabilities added. The list of completed tasks is long and includes: the refurbishment and equipping of the Refrigeration Training Centre (RTC), construction of our world-class Environmental Test Chamber for Africa and first-of-a-kind Community Cooling Hub (CCH) and canteen; work on our classrooms, offices, laboratories, and the conference hall; and health and safety upgrades to deliver fully operational spaces. Procurement and operational systems were strengthened through the acquisition of essential equipment, furniture, and training consumables, alongside the activation of insurance and ICT systems to support seamless operations. And with a keen focus on the future, I was very pleased to report that plans for our Research Park were completed with first crops planned to be planted in time for the next rainy season.

Building human capital through training

So, with people, buildings, and facilities rapidly coming together, what did we actually do about delivery of the ACES programme itself this year? The answer is a lot!

Step 1 in our work to accelerate the uptake of sustainable, equitable, inclusive and resilient cold-chains in the Global South is to build human capital through training that delivers knowledge transfer and skills development. This is essential to avoid the failures of past well-meaning interventions that have resulted in unused or underutilised cold stores and other cooling facilities. Our approach upends the traditional top-down intervention model typically employed by international aid organisations and governments, in that it builds technical, business and policymaking capabilities in-country before the deployment of any physical assets takes place on the ground. In essence, it collaboratively creates or improves human capital from the bottom up, working with mobilisers, communities, and local entrepreneurs, to ensure a successful outcome to cold-chain deployment.

Training is a central pillar of ACES, and in 2025 we continued to rapidly develop our portfolio of quality world-class provision, creating new programmes and delivering multiple courses that enhanced knowledge and skills in sustainable cooling, solar energy, brazing, cold-chain management, and GESI integration, amongst many other topics. In all, our suite of offerings expanded by 27 courses and 34 local training events were delivered this year, adding to a cumulative total of students trained that has now reached more than 1,300. With demand growing, we are increasing the frequency of the opportunities we provide to engage with our programmes. For example, the delivery of the Foundation course has been increased from once per year to five times annually. Indeed, we are now poised for a significant scale-up of provision and are on track to more than double our annual training capacity in 2026. As soon as the fresh year is upon us, we will be getting off to a flying start with the launching of new courses, including apprenticeship pathways, night school for the informal sector, micro-credit routes, and expanded online learning. And training specifically designed for farmers will follow close behind.

Beyond numbers, early evaluations show measurable improvements in technical competence, confidence, and employability among trainees, with several graduates already securing roles in industry and others progressing into more senior positions. These outcomes demonstrate that ACES is creating not just skills, but livelihoods and career pathways.

Accreditation is an important component of quality assurance, as well as a credibility builder amongst potential cohorts of participants, and I was extremely proud to report that we achieved this valuable marker of trust in 2025 for two of our offerings. Particularly satisfying was accreditation by the Institution of Agricultural Engineers (IAgrE) of our novel and impactful ‘Train-the-Trainer’ programme. Africa urgently needs a rapid scale-up of the knowledge and skills necessary to support the uptake of sustainable cooling and cold-chains and this offer was designed to meet that challenge by creating a cascade effect for accelerated dissemination across the continent. A credit to the academic team that collaboratively developed the curriculum, it embeds engineering, logistics, gender inclusion, data systems, and financeable business planning alongside teaching skills and, excitingly, upon completion participants will be able to obtain an internationally recognised PGCert qualification: ‘Train-the-Trainer – Clean Cooling’.

Engaging communities to build the base for scale-up

In parallel to building human capital, developing relationships with communities on-the-ground in-country is a key action in the process of creating a base from which a rapid scale-up of sustainable cold-chain adoption can be realised in the Global South. Our approach in this regard has been to develop a “hub and spoke” model of outreach, engagement, and delivery, that locates the Centre of Excellence in the hub position from which a national context determined number of Specialised Outreach and Knowledge Establishments (SPOKEs) radiate. ACES is the first of our hubs to be established and this year has seen its first SPOKE created. The latter, located in neighbouring Kenya, has already begun to deliver positive results, including the team offering a wide range of in-person and online training courses, as well as implementing the first application of our novel “Try-Before-You-Buy” (TBYB) scheme. TBYB is a unique and powerful concept that involves a package of basic cold-chain and food processing equipment being temporarily installed (free of charge) in a rural community to enable them to test new business models, gain hands-on experience, and realise value adding opportunities in a safe, low-risk, supported operational environment. Located in the reality of their day-to-day lived conditions, the scheme bridges the gap between initial interest and long-term adoption.

SPOKEs are developed with in-country expert partners and these key collaborators provide the local / near-to-market training and community support required to demonstrate, and put into practice, tested real-world solutions, driving roll-out and delivering impact. Each SPOKE team is tasked with undertaking outreach engagement, capacity building and support, and the development of “model” local communities which will become training, evidence base, and demonstration centres. The latter will act as a cascade point for distribution of knowledge and best practice to other rural communities in the surrounding area. Importantly, a SPOKE business model was developed this year, integrating data collection, cost-benefit analysis, revenue projections, and value offerings to ensure sustainable community operations. 2026 is set to be a landmark year for rapid scale-up of the deployment of ACES SPOKEs, securely setting in place the foundations for implementation of our hub-and-spoke model across the Global South. The hub-and-spoke model is not only an outreach vehicle but a systemic change mechanism. As SPOKEs mature, they will anchor resilient local cooling ecosystems, and provide governments with real-time data to inform policy and investment decisions.

At ACES itself, the highlight of our community engagement activities this year was undoubtedly the successful organisation and delivery of the world’s first ever “Festival of Cooling”, which ran in our Kigali campus from October 7th to 10th. This exciting, fun filled event, which involved a mix of informative public talks, equipment and facility demonstrations, hands-on practical experiences, competitions, and deep dive sector focussed workshops for school pupils and their teachers; potential cooling practitioners; entrepreneurs and innovators; exporters and farmers, attracted 692 participants (of which 231 were females). Supported by a social media campaign, press coverage, and radio broadcasts, this ground-breaking event certainly made the invisible visible, amplified awareness of the need for sustainable cold-chains, celebrated the role cooling plays in our lives, and helped inspire Rwanda’s next generation to be part of Africa’s cooling transformation.

And off the back of this, we were asked to host a mini Festival of Cooling for Ntare Louisenlund School on 6th December which 132 pupils/students attended. We will have regular school Festivals during 2026.

Building collaboration and partnership

This year also saw us grow our key national and international stakeholder engagement work and cement further collaborative partnerships through Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs). The latter included signings with the Rwanda Environment Management Agency (REMA), Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) in Kigali and the UK based Institute of Refrigeration (IOR), as well as the drafting of an MoU with RICA that is expected to be formalised early in the new year. High-level engagement undertaken with the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), the Rwanda Agriculture and Animal Resources Development Board (RAB), National Agricultural Export Development Board (NAEB), and the City of Kigali defining clear joint activities is anticipated to result in additional MoU signings in 2026. On the global stage, strategic discussions were initiated with the World Bank, IFAD, Mastercard Foundation, Denmark, France and in Tanzania and Togo, to explore future programmes and partnerships, and relationships were strengthened with international organisations including UNEP, FAO, MP, WHO, UNICEF, IVI, NIHR.

Backing it all up with an evidence-base and research

Successful stakeholder engagement with national bodies, and establishing international collaborative partnerships with global organisations, requires credibility and recognised excellence. For ACES, these come from our strong commitment to research and evidence-based decision making. Founded in the world-class academic group at the core of the ACES project, research has advanced 12 biomedical cold-chain themes this year, including UAV-based vaccine delivery (VaccAir), Mpox and Ebola studies, immunodiagnostics, environmental surveillance, and cryogenic preservation, supporting public health preparedness and the application of solutions. To aid dissemination of the outputs of this work across our biomedical cold-chain programs, One Health projects, and the CryoBioSphere Lab, as well as broaden our engagement with peers in the medical research community, we took the bold step in 2025 of organising and delivering a 3-day Vaccine Symposium on our Kigali campus. With a focus on demonstrating clear translations from research to implementation, the Symposium attracted over 200 delegates from across Africa and beyond, successfully strengthening our visibility in the scientific community, as well as with policymakers and industry leaders.

Underpinning with good governance

ACES, however, could not function effectively without solid, stable, administrative and governance systems, including procurement, finance, HR, MEL, SOPs, meaningful Board oversight, and external auditors. In addition to the policies, protocols, documents, and staff recruitment already outlined above, this year we have reprofiled budgets to secure funding through to Quarter 3 of 2027 and initiated a commercial services strategy (based on training, consultancy, and technical services) to accelerate the transition towards self-financing. Governance and oversight have also been strengthened through establishing regular meetings of the Board of Directors and appointing an independent external auditor. Indeed, ACES was successfully audited this year, confirming compliance with financial, procurement, operational, and governance requirements.

Shouting about it far and wide!

And finally, in the context of delivering the ACES mission, there would be little point in all these great achievements if we didn’t shout out about them across Africa and the wider world. To this end, our public and sector-specific communications activities expanded significantly in 2025, with on-line content, social media campaigns, press and broadcast coverage, events and happenings, and storytelling through photography, all increasing substantially. Encouraging visits to the ACES Kigali campus by international experts, partner institutions, industry representatives, and high-level government officials is also important and this year we hosted on-site tours and discussions with Baroness Chapman of Darlington, UK Minister for International Development and Africa; Dr. Bernadette Arakwiye, Rwanda’s Minister of Environment; Telesphore Ndabamenye, Rwanda’s Minister of State for Agriculture and Animal Resources; and Lord Collins, UK Minister for Africa.

Thank you

So, as we begin to anticipate the transition from 2025 to 2026, I think it would be hard not to agree with me that the ACES team, and their “can do” approach to tackling challenges, has delivered enormous strides this year across all operational areas. Through these coordinated actions, we have increased and empowered human capital, engaged communities, built deep meaningful partnerships, advanced research and innovation, strengthened institutional capacity, impressed high-level delegations, and positioned the Centre as an international, regional and local leader in sustainable cold-chain and cooling solutions. I also want to recognise the immense personal commitment my ACES colleagues have shown this year. Growth at this pace is demanding, and their resilience, teamwork, and generosity toward one another have been the foundation of everything we have achieved. Looking ahead, we will place even greater emphasis on staff wellbeing, professional development, and leadership pathways to ensure the team grows not just in number, but in strength.

And for me, well, it has been an absolute privilege to be able to work with everyone at ACES and have the joy of submitting such an impressive progress report. I am really looking forward to 2026 .

Professor Toby Peters