Annual Forum
Bringing together leading international experts and key regional stakeholders, the Annual Forum for Open Research in MENA supports the exchange of ideas and strategies relating to the Arab world’s transition towards more accessible, sustainable and inclusive research and education models.
The event allows librarians, researchers, policy makers, higher-education institutions, and solutions providers to exchange ideas and discuss the challenges they face and solutions they have developed relating to the implementation of open science policies and practises, and the building of open science communities, in higher education institutions and research communities across the Arab World.
Every year, we hold the Forum in a different Arab State, to enable all researchers, librarians, and Open Science champions to have the opportunity to attend in person (as well as online).
The 2023 Annual Forum offered a series of carefully tailored presentations and panels addressing key themes and topics related to the advancement of Open Science policies and practices in research institutions and research communities throughout the Arab world. We were honoured to have Khalifa University as our Host Partner for this event, and to have the support and endorsement of our partner UNESCO.
This year’s conference theme was: Democratizing Knowledge: The evolution of open science ecosystems and communities in the Arab World. We invited librarians, researchers, policy makers, higher-education institutions, publishers, and solutions-providers to join us.
The 2022 Annual Forum was held on the 26th-27th of October to coincide with the global Open Access Week initiative in Cairo, Egypt (with the support and endorsement of UNESCO and the Egyptian Knowledge Bank). The event was a huge success, with 50 speakers and over 1100 delegatesa from 48 countries across the globe.
Supported by UNESCO, ALECSO and EKB, our goal was to provide a forum for MENA librarians, researchers, government policy makers and higher-education institutions to exchange ideas and start new cross-regional collaborations developing Open Science policies and infrastructure. By bringing together industry leaders and global experts, and providing a mixture of outstanding talks, strategy sessions, networking opportunities and workshops, we aimed to encourage participants to consider all the issues surrounding equitable Open Scholarship and Open Research practices.
