The IBRO African Centers for Advanced Training in Neuroscience is an IBRO initiative in partnership with the IBRO African Regional Committee (IBRO-ARC), Mohammed V University of Rabat (Morocco) and the University of Cape Town (South Africa). Building upon the success of the Africa Schools Program and explicitly focusing on excellence in training, teaching and research, IBRO established two initial centres of excellence at UCT and Mohammed V University Rabat. Each center hosts a school for African neuroscientists at least twice every year. Once they are running regularly and reliably, it is hoped that more centres of excellence can be established in other countries on the continent.

By focusing resources on developing excellence in a few initial centres, the advanced training programme in Africa is supported by a more stable, consistent and long-term strategy that aims to provide the secure infrastructure required for future growth in the field of neuroscience in Africa. The programme enables the organizers to standardize course offerings, build upon their experiences, strengthen and grow regional neuroscience networks, improve resources and make the implementation of the schools more cost-effective over time.

Students benefit strongly from the uniform curriculum, easier access to high quality equipment, resources and facilities, more follow-up support from staff members and more reliable regional neuroscience contact networks. It is also envisioned that even diploma/degree-awarding courses could be offered in the future.

Since 2001, IBRO has sponsored over 50 neuroscience schools and courses for over 1,000 African scientists throughout the African continent. From the beginning, it has been a critical objective to ensure that all aspects of the Africa Schools Program were of the highest quality in order to build a robust and sustainable foundation for African neuroscience in the future. This continues to be a main objective for IBRO, and remains one of the most important activities of our organization.