Sir

Your Editorial “Networks for Africa” (Nature 438, 395; 2005) raises the question of how research and teaching in the mathematical and physical sciences in Africa can best be strengthened. A vital ingredient is surely that, with whatever assistance richer nations can provide, the broader scientific community across Africa should itself plan and manage its own scientific development.

It is in this spirit that the African Academy of Sciences and the International Mathematical Union support a distributed network of African mathematicians in the African Mathematics Millennium Science Initiative, or AMMSI (http://www.ammsi-maths.org). AMMSI supports research and postgraduate training in mathematics at universities in sub-Saharan Africa. Individual grants are awarded to students and faculty members whose low salaries, high teaching loads and geographic isolation have inhibited their full functioning as teachers, mentors and researchers.

Since 2004, AMMSI and the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town have been working to ensure that the African mathematical community is a fully vested partner in the proposed IT infrastructure network mentioned in your Editorial: the African Mathematical Institutes Net, or AMI-Net.