The Festival of Cooling taking place in Kigali, Rwanda this week is much more than a technical gathering. With the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain (ACES) operational and activities expanding, it is a public declaration that Rwanda is ready to put sustainable cooling, and more specifically cold-chain, at the heart of social, economic, environmental and One Health agendas. And it is also a tangible demonstration of the UK Government’s commitment to the role of cold-chain and cooling in sustainable development and the global partnerships that must underpin resilient and equitable food and health.

With the multi-million £ support of Rwanda, the UK and industry, the campus development has been remarkable. ACES is a first-of-a-kind centre for cold-chain anywhere in the world. It has world-class facilities for training and research: the only Environmental Test Chamber in sub-Saharan Africa, outside of South Africa; variable temperature rooms and food labs; fully equipped refrigeration and solar training centres; a wealth of demonstration and research equipment. With its own research farm, it is truly seed and soil to plate. And by integrating pre-cooling, cold storage, and refrigerated transport, we show and teach how to protect the shelf life, connect farmer to markets, and facilitate exports.

But ACES is not just about reducing food losses – it is about enabling value addition. The new Community Cooling Hub will demonstrate how through processing, packaging, and branding, farming communities can turning raw produce into market-ready, nutritious food for more people. In doing so, sustainable cold-chain becomes and engine of investment in rural economies, creating new jobs across farming, logistics, and processing, and builds more resilient livelihoods.

ACES though is more than just world-class facilities. It is the home for a single family of world-class researchers and teachers, and experts from Rwanda, across Africa and the UK. Today, we have close on 100 passionate and skilled individuals working together on site, in the field and online day in day out to make ACES a success and bring its vison to life.

Our goal now is to support our growing student community, create meaningful partnerships, expand our in-country presence and be the best institution for the country and indeed for Africa. We already have more than 25 in-person and online training programmes for farmers, refrigeration technicians and engineers and policy-makers, visual story-tellers and others with more courses being launched every week. These include plans for opening a night school to ensure engineers can come after work. This week we have kick-started our work with local innovators to help accelerate them on the tough journey from start-up to commercial and profitable businesses. Our reports and conferences are changing and shaping the agenda.

Cold-chain is critical infrastructure that underpins food security and nutrition, improves health outcomes, and delivers economic well-being. Importantly, it can create new jobs for youth, especially young women, and build resilience to the rapidly changing climate. In so doing, it underpins all the aspirations of Rwanda. And indeed Africa which has 65% of the world’s uncultivated and where 60% of the population is under-25

With ACES, we have both the opportunity and responsibility to harness the investment and trust in us and the belief in our mission. We will reflect this in our teaching and research to develop the talent in the country. We will support innovators and build the collaborations, increase the visibility of cold-chains to the public eye, and engage farmers, innovators and entrepreneurs. And most of all we can inspire Africa’s next generation to be part of the continent’s cooling transformation, to help change Rwanda and its role in the world.

Prof. Toby Peters is the Founding Director of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Cooling and Cold-Chain (ACES) and a global pioneer in sustainable cooling and cold-chain systems. He is the co-Inventor of Liquid Air Energy Storage. He is the co-Founder of Highview Power and a Professor of Cold Economy, University of Birmingham and Heriot-Watt University.