Africa Open Institute for Music, Research and Innovation is an independent and autonomous interdisciplinary institute in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Stellenbosch University.

The institute was founded in 2016 by its current Director, Prof Stephanus Muller. It is housed in the historical Okkers House at 7 Joubert Street in Stellenbosch, from where it has hosted innovative research initiatives and cultivated a research ethos in continual exploration of knowledge in its disciplinary and non-disciplinary guises. Projects hosted in the institute have been funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the German Heritage Fund, the Nussbaum Foundation, the Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, the Wallenbergstiftung, the Volkswagen Stiftung, Het Jan Marais National Fonds, the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences, and the Stellenbosch University Strategic Fund. The institute has been home to pioneering graduate research and has been instrumental in the publication of important South African research in the form of monographs, critical editions, accredited articles, popular articles, films, recordings, performances and online digitally curated scholarship and publication. Work done in the institute has received several awards from the National Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences and the Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns, among others, and the institute maintains a strong record of publication and innovative creative work, exemplified by its improvisation ensemble, AOImprovising.