Empowering Africa's Science Leaders: A Decade of Impact and Ambition

Last October, the Future Africa campus at the University of Pretoria hosted nearly seventy fellows from the past decade to come together to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Africa Science Leadership Programme (ASLP). This milestone underscores the transformative power of this programme and its impact on advancing visionary leadership in African science. Launched through a collaboration between the University of Pretoria and Inclusive Innovation, with funding from the Robert Bosch Stiftung Foundation, ASLP has grown into an influential initiative that empowers early- to mid-career African academics as they shape the future of science on the continent.

The ASLP goes beyond traditional capacity-building. Each year, fellows emerge transformed—energized, inspired, and prepared to lead change in their communities and beyond. ASLP’s impact extends well beyond its cohorts, with a ripple effect inspiring local and regional programs and equipping Africa’s next generation of science leaders to take on the complex challenges of today and tomorrow.

A bit of history: a dream to unlock Africa’s scientific potential

Bernard Slippers, a South African molecular ecologist, envisioned the ASLP long before it became a reality. He saw a gap in the way scientists are trained: “Scientists are expected to do their research, but they are not well prepared for things like team leadership, building or launching a new institute, or trying to establish a new network. Traditional science only equips people with the technical skills but expects them to learn the rest along the way.” These skills are essential, especially in Africa—a continent of 54 nations, countless languages, and diverse political systems—where scientists work across varied, multinational contexts.

In 2010, as a founding member of the Global Young Academy (GYA), Bernard and his colleagues saw the potential for science to make a deliberate, positive impact worldwide. Their early discussions highlighted a critical need to equip scientists with leadership skills for real-world impact. He was particularly inspired by Stanford University’s Leopold Leadership Programme (later called the Earth Leadership Program), an initiative for environmental scientists in North America, and he began imagining a similar program tailored for Africa.

Dr. Bernard Slippers sets the tone for ASLP

Bernard’s experiences at global forums, like the World Economic Forum, underscored the unique challenges African scientists face: “A young scientist, often brilliant, may be put in a poorly resourced university, expected not only to do science but to serve as dean and grow the institution,” he explained. “Supporting them with leadership skills beyond technical expertise is essential.”

Beyond this injustice, Bernard saw a waste of human potential: “There’s just as much talent in Africa as anywhere else. With the right support, that talent could be advancing scientific knowledge and addressing the world’s most complex challenges. Our chances of success diminish if we don’t fully engage the global talent pool,” he concluded. “Tremendous human brain power exists in Africa; it just needs to be unlocked."

A new generation, a new paradigm of science leadership in Africa

In the early stages of imagining a science leadership program for Africa, Bernard reached out to Maggie Dugan, founder of Inclusive Innovation, inviting her to join an initial ASLP design strategy meeting. Maggie brought a unique background in guiding researchers through creative processes to tackle complex, multidisciplinary challenges—expertise honed through her work with Inclusive Innovation’s sister company, Knowinnovation. A key part of this process was defining the core question to address. For Bernard’s vision, the question became clear: How to create a new paradigm of science leadership in Africa?

The original facilitation team: Puleng, Tim & Maggie, in 2015

The initial ASLP design team—composed of Bernard, Maggie, Margaret Krebs, Director of the Leopold Leadership Program, and Eva Alisic, an Associate Professor in child trauma at the University of Melbourne and at the time co-chair of the GYA—focused their strategy meetings on exploring this question. They mapped out the challenges and victories typical in the lives of early-career researchers in Africa, using these insights to brainstorm workshop activities that would resonate deeply with their target audience.

From these efforts, the blueprint for ASLP emerged—a program grounded in a collective leadership framework, utilizing a creative problem-solving model and tools, and structured around highly interactive, experiential learning activities. Rather than presenting a series of training modules about how to lead, ASLP became a journey in problem-solving, aimed at redefining science leadership in Africa. The vision was to empower African leaders to drive science within and beyond the continent, shaping a leadership model for Africa and the world.

A “roll up your sleeves and dig in” workshop

At the heart of ASLP is the belief that leadership isn’t something you teach — it’s something you uncover. From the outset, the goal has been less about “training” leaders and more about encouraging fellows to envision how science leadership in Africa might evolve, explore their role within it, and cultivate their unique leadership style. The program’s interactive tools and exercises empower participants to discover for themselves how these ideas can resonate in their lives and work.

ASLP workshops are anything but ordinary. They follow the Inclusive Innovation model, designed for action, not observation—a “roll up your sleeves” experience where flipcharts overflow with mind maps, walls are covered in post-its and sketches, and every activity pushes the fellows to dive deeper. It’s an approach that surprises and engages. Within the first hour, they’re already talking with each other, warming up the room – laughing, even – and building the trust and rapport they’ll need for the intellectual risks they’ll take together over the next days they’ll spend together.

The results: a new generation of African science leaders

“I’ve never felt so much energy and growth in such a short time,” says Binyam Sisay Mendisu, Associate Dean and Professor of African Languages and Linguistics at The Africa Institute and an inaugural ASLP fellow in 2015. For him, the ASLP workshop was a world apart from typical academic sessions. “There was so much interaction and connection among fellows and mentors, all grounded in our actual work.” The program’s design inspired him deeply, encouraging participants to connect on a personal level and be part of something greater.

For many fellows, ASLP has been a transformative experience. Hamada Abdelrahman, a 2017 fellow and Associate Professor in Soil Science at the University of Cairo, credits the program with expanding his professional network across Africa and revealing valuable insights into his own leadership style. An active listening exercise—where participants took turns as speaker, listener, and observer—helped him realize his habit of interrupting others. “Now I see the importance of listening fully, even if I don’t agree,” he reflects. “The ASLP’s approach has a lasting impact.”

Both Hamada and Binyam joined ASLP to strengthen connections within the African scientific community, often overlooked as African researchers build networks more readily with peers in America or Europe. “I knew the entire soil science community in Italy,” Hamada notes, “but I barely knew 10% of soil scientists in Africa.” Strong networks are essential for collaborative progress on shared challenges, like a researcher in Egypt and another in Libya working separately on the same issue. ASLP has helped bridge this gap and inspired projects like ConnectUs, a platform to foster collaboration among African researchers.

Through ASLP, Binyam’s network has “enormously expanded,” bringing together scientists from over 60 disciplines—a unique achievement in Africa. His journey continued beyond his 2015 participation, as he returned, along with another inaugural fellow, Connie Nshemereirwe – now the Director of ASLP – in the role of programme mentor, and eventually both trained to become facilitators of the programme workshop. Over the years, the Inclusive Innovation team members have gradually withdrawn as lead facilitators, instead acting as support or running train-the-facilitator workshops to develop the next generation of facilitators for ASLP and for local and regional programs. Needless to say, we’re incredibly proud of our contribution to the ASLP programme, which has become self-sustaining, with an empowered community to champion and expand ASLP’s mission for the years to come.

Showing Up as a Leader

“One of the key things I took from ASLP is how to show up as my best, most authentic self—even on short notice,” says Priscilla Mante, Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology at KNUST, Ghana. “I’ve applied that to everything.” Since her ASLP in 2019, her career has flourished, opening doors she hadn’t expected. After joining the GYA, she was elected co-chair within a year and is often invited to join panels and meetings outside her specialty. “I’m a neuroscientist focused on curing epilepsy, but many of the opportunities I get now involve strengthening science systems in Africa, which isn’t part of my formal training.”

Priscilla credits ASLP with giving her the courage to speak her mind. Recently, at a UN meeting on accelerating the SDGs, she advocated for the inclusion of youth and women’s voices. “The feedback was that my recommendations were clearer than others on the panel. I could say what I truly felt, not just what’s expected. ASLP helped me find my authentic voice.”

The ASLP program places strong emphasis on reflection, giving fellows time to consider not only what they’re learning but also how it will impact their lives back home, in their institutions, and with their families. They leave with a renewed sense of purpose and a commitment to bridging science and society—essential roles they aren’t formally trained or paid to do but that they now feel ready to embrace. “After ASLP, I identified as a leader, the person who does what needs to be done,” says Connie Nshemereirwe, highlighting the program’s impact on confidence and clarity. ASLP empowers participants to speak authentically and take on vital roles, “spilling over in unexpected ways to the rest of their lives.”

Impacting the Continent, and the World

The ASLP has hosted 20 fellows each year, but its influence has grown way beyond these pan-African cohorts. More than 50 regional and local Science Leadership Programmes (SLPs) have been conducted in Benin, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda, reaching more than a thousand researchers, and all run by fellows inspired by their ASLP experience. The impact goes beyond the borders of Africa, as ASLP spawned similar programs co-created with Inclusive Innovation in Southeast Asia (ASEAN-SLP), Asia-Pacific (APEC-SLP), Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC-SLP) as well as global SLP workshops sponsored by the GYA at two World Science Forums and for its new members at their annual general meeting. Indeed, ASLP is changing the paradigm of science leadership in Africa, and for the rest of the world, too.

Of course there are still serious hurdles to overcome in Africa. There are limited border agreements among African nations that prevent the movement of scientists. In fact, it is currently easier for an Egyptian researcher to obtain a visa to travel to Spain than to Nigeria. But there is hope in getting Africa’s scientific output closer to that of the rest of the world. The key is to connect Africa’s brightest minds and empower them to inspire change and collaboration among their own communities, just as the ASLP has been doing for the past ten years, and will continue to do for many more.