The AIA was founded in June 2012 and officially launched in January 2013, during the African Doctoral Academy's 5th annual Summer School in Research Methods.

fltr: Dr Lauren Wildschut (AIA), Dr Susanne Friese (ATLAS.ti, Berlin) and Prof Johann Mouton (ADA).
The AIA aims to support and focus on the developing
context of African academics and researchers. The intention is to dove-tail
with current ATLAS.ti offerings and to build a cadre of qualitative researchers
who produce rigorous quality research utilising ATLAS.ti. Support for African
qualitative researchers and doctoral students will be provided by both AIA and
the courses currently offered by the ADA.
The AIA will become a virtual support network for qualitative researchers
using ATLAS.ti and for Masters and Doctoral students who utilise ATLAS.ti for
literature reviews or analysis of qualitative data. This network will
consist of members (those who simply want to access the resources and training
the AIA has to offer) and champions (those who have completed the Advanced
ATLAS.ti training course run through the ADA, would like to advocate the use of
ATLAS.ti on the continent, support other researchers and in the long-term
become trainers).