As FORM is flourishing, we’re starting to grow our team of dedicated supporters – and we thought it would be nice to introduce them all to you. You will have met some of us before, at one of our online Community Development Activities or in person at our Annual Forum – but we have some lovely new team members as well…

Dr Emily Choynowski – Co-Founder & Director

Emily founded FORM in late 2021, after realising the need amongst Arab researchers, librarians, university administrators and policymakers for localised guidelines and practical, actionable insights concerning open science. She sourced a three-year seed-grant from the Knowledge E Foundation, and has worked tirelessly to grow the initiative and develop its reputation across the Arab states. She also works with leading global open science advocacy groups to ensure the Arab region’s representation in global discussions and debates.

Kamran Kardan – Co-Founder

Kamran believes that knowledge should be accessible everywhere for everyone. Supporting FORM is one of the many avenues by which he strives to achieve this vision, and he works with us to promote the advancement of open science across the Arab states and beyond.

Jacir Hilmi – Membership Coordinator and Translation Outreach

Jacir has been a member of the FORM team for almost three years. He provides expert translation, both for our own websites and communications and for various global open science advocacy groups. In addition he led the working group to establish the first Arabic-English open science glossary specifically for higher education and research communities. In addition, Jacir recently took over as Membership Coordinator, working with our members and strategic partners and facilitating collaborations.

Mariam (Mira) George – Community Development Activities Coordinator

Mira has supported various FORM events for a number of years, but is now joining us in a more official capacity to oversee the organisation and hosting of our monthly Community Development Activities programme. These include regular webinars, workshops and symposia, as well as a variety of working group activities.

Banin Amini and Rima Qayed – Communications and Engagement

Rima and Banin are the newest additions to our team. They are supporting all our engagement and outreach activities – by handling our email campaigns, managing our social media channels, and producing our helpful bilingual guidelines and resources. They are also facilitating our longer-term strategic development by researching and mapping the region’s open science communities, policies, and priorities.

Lisette Van Kessel – Event Management Lisette is a firm open science advocate and, with a wealth of event management experience, she supports us each year with the organisation and management of our Annual Forum – overseeing all of the logistical elements and helping to ensure each Forum is well-run, impactful and enjoyable for all our delegates.