After an unprecedented volume of excellent submissions from researchers, librarians and policy makers from across the world, all keen to share their insights and experiences on the theme of Democratizing Knowledge: The evolution of open science ecosystems and communities in the Arab World, we have decided to expand our programme to include an additional day of online-only papers. The 2nd Annual Forum (2023) will take place

Our Call for Papers for the 2023 Annual Forum received so many excellent submissions from librarians, researchers, funders and policy makers across the region, along with leading open science solutions providers – we have decided to extend the Annual Forum and add a third day to the proceedings. The event will now start on the evening of the 22nd of October, with a Welcome Drinks

We are delighted to welcome the Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research (AQF) as a Member of FORM. As an international alliance of higher education institutions, research libraries, and other research communities based within the Arab region, we are comprised of a diverse array of stakeholder groups involved in the academic research and scholarly communications ecosystems. As a leading regional funder

As the date of the 2023 Annual Forum draws closer, we are delighted to announce the first of our Keynote Speakers: Heather Joseph, Executive Director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC). SPARC is an international coalition of academic and research libraries promoting the open sharing of knowledge. Under her stewardship, SPARC has become the leading advocacy organization promoting innovative open and equitable

Our Call for Papers for this year’s Annual Forum has closed, and we are delighted to have received a record number of submissions for papers and round tables, with almost 100 submissions from 25 countries across the Arab region and beyond (in addition to the expert contributions of our invited speakers and keynote presenters). We want to thank all the scholars, scientists, librarians and open

In 2022, we were honoured to have UNESCO as our Advisory Partner for the first Annual Forum. In addition to providing expert guidance and support, UNESCO gave one of our keynote presentations and sponsored a fantastic and thought-provoking panel, covering three core topics from the Open Science Recommendation list. Dr. Ezra Clark, UNESCO – “Open Science Policies and Strategies” Dr. Yousef Torman, ASREN – “Building

As a new initiative, one of our biggest challenges is to develop a broad community of experts who can provide guidance and practical support to our members and stakeholders concerning the wide array of issues and developments relating to the implementation of open science policies and practices in research institutions. This is one of the reasons why we have two types of membership, one for

We are so pleased with how our Community Development Series is gathering traction, that we wanted to tell you all about it! The Community Development Series offers practical guidance on a broad array of issues relating to the implementation of Open Science policies and practices in scholarly ecosystems, via monthly events held in collaboration with non-profit organisations and open source solutions providers. Our first event

We were very excited to have the opportunity to present a paper at the 43rd International Association of University Libraries (IATUL) conference, jointly hosted by Zayed University and the American University of Sharjah. Our Director of Operations, Dr Emily Choynowski, gave a paper titled Planning for Open: How the Forum for Open Research in MENA is supporting the region’s research libraries, which provided an overview

We are excited to announce that Khalifa University will be our Host Partner for the 2023 Annual Forum! Based in Abu Dhabi, the Khalifa University of Science and Technology is one of the top-ranked universities in the region (and first in the UAE), and a leading champion of open science in the region. We are honoured to be able to partner with them for this