African Centres of Excellence (ACEs) and their partners, the Association of African Universities (AAU), National Councils for Tertiary Education and other stakeholders with support from the World Bank converged last Monday 18th February, 2019 for a 10-day inaugural ACE Impact workshop and bootcamp in Djibouti with a concerted goal of strengthening research, academic and development programmes at national and continental levels. The meeting was also aimed at nurturing innovation and learning from shared experiences.