The African Research Universities Alliance (ARUA) was inaugurated in Dakar, Senegal in March 2015 and brings together 16 of the continent’s leading universities. ARUA is a network of universities from different countries and different historical backgrounds that share a common vision. The network is dedicated to significantly enhancing the quality of research conducted in Africa by African researchers. The uniqueness of the network comes largely from the approach employed, namely bringing together a number of peer African institutions that were willing to work together by pooling their own limited resources, with a view to generating a critical mass that could more effectively support their limited, but growing number of researchers. Underlying this was the conviction that they could thereby leverage this effectively for additional resources from outside.

In 2018, Addis Ababa University, which is a member of ARUA, was selected to host the ARUA Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Post-Conflict Societies and the CoE in Good Governance. Later in 2020, after a competitive process, the CoE in Post-Conflict Societies won two project grants from the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). After postponing the start dates of the projects due to the outbreak of COVID-19, both projects were officially launched in January 2021. These projects are:

• Capacity Building for the CoE in Post-Conflict Societies Project; and
• Migration, Urbanization and Conflict in Africa Research Project.