The Immediate Past Director of the Directorate of Research Innovation and Consultancy (DRIC) at the University of Cape Coast, Prof Frederick Ato Armah, has been appointed director of Research and Programmes at the Association of African Universities (AAU).

Prof Armah’s appointment takes effect on the 1st of November, 2023.

With about 400 members across the African continent, AAU is the largest and most comprehensive organization representing Universities and Higher Education bodies in Africa.

It is also the apex organization and forum for consultation, exchange of information, and cooperation among institutions of higher education in Africa, and represents the voice of higher education in Africa on regional and international bodies and supports networking by institutions of higher education in teaching, research, information exchange, and dissemination.

The AAU, whose headquarters is in Accra, Ghana, was founded in 1967, following recommendations made at an earlier conference organized by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Antananarivo, Madagascar in September 1962 for the formation of such an apex organization. The Mission of the AAU is to raise the quality of higher education in Africa and strengthen its contribution to African development by fostering collaboration among its member institutions.

Professor Ato Armah’s appointment comes after a pivotal role he’s played in research at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, and the global research ecosystem.

The new director of Research and Programmes at the AAU is a Professor of Environmental and Sustainability Science at the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. He has taught at all levels of the educational ladder—basic, secondary, and tertiary, since 1995.

He has extensive critical leadership skills and experience in institutional development and project management. He has designed, managed and evaluated a variety of development projects during the past 20 years throughout Africa and beyond.

He has worked with national, regional and international stakeholders to improve management tools and policy, to undertake research, conduct assessments, to help resolve environmental, health and social issues. He holds certificates in University Leadership and Management Development; Building African Entrepreneurship Universities in the Context of Responsible Innovations and Sustainable Development; and Project Planning and Proposal Development; and Transforming Leadership and Governance.

He has consulted widely for several national and international organizations including USAID, Cadmus Group, the World Bank, African Capacity Building Foundation, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), German Development Bank (KfW), and the United Nations Environment. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals of international repute. He was an Ontario Trillium Scholar in Canada between 2011 and 2015.

In 2020, Prof. Armah won the Association of American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) in Environmental Sciences, together with co-authors of the Sixth Edition of the UN Global Environment Outlook Report.

He was the Director of the Directorate of Research, Innovation and Consultancy at the University of Cape Coast from April 2019 to July 2022. He is a Senior Research Fellow of the Earth Systems Governance initiative of the International Science Council.

He is a member of the Inter-Governmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) where he serves as a nexus assessment scoping expert