Each year at the Annual Forum, we select our keynotes to provide valuable insights that help to frame and contextualise the overarching theme chosen for that year, helping to shape and drive the discussions and debates for the whole event.

For our 4th Annual Forum, taking place this year in the UAE in partnership with the American University of Sharjah, it is our huge pleasure to announce that our Regional Perspectives Keynote will be Prof. Dr. Mohamad Sanad Abu-Darwish, Director of Science and Scientific Research at the Arab League Educational, Cultural, and Scientific Organization (ALECSO).

A professor of pharmaceutical sciences, he previously served as the president of Aqaba University of Technology (AUT) in Jordan from 2019 to 2022. Prior to this, he was the dean of a university college at Al-Balqa Applied University in Jordan, and has also held visiting professor positions at Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany and the University of Mississippi, USA, supported by a Fulbright scholarship. He has received several prestigious awards, including the Distinguished Academic Award from the Arab Fund for Social and Economic Development in Kuwait. Widely published, accruing over 2,000 citations and an h-index of 23, Prof. Dr. Mohamad Sanad Abu-Darwish serves on the editorial boards of multiple scientific journals and is a member of various national and international scientific organizations.

It is a huge honour to have Prof. Dr. Mohamad Sanad Abu-Darwish as our Regional Perspectives Keynote for this year’s Annual Forum, during which he will share valuable regional insights into the state of open science policies and practises across the Arab world, and ALECSO’s activities in connection with this important topic.

To find out more about the Annual Forum, and to register interest visit the event website