Regional workshop 1

This Policy Development Workshop was the first in a series of workshops organised in collaboration with UNESCO and regional associations of higher education institutions in Africa to promote the development of open science policies at the institutional level to complement the LIBSENSE National Open Science Roadmaps. It was held as part of the regional annual conference of the Ubuntunet Alliance (a regional REN implementing the AfricaConnect3 project in Southern and Eastern Africa)

The workshop's objective was to establish common ground on how to move from the high-level goals and principles articulated in the UNESCO recommendations on Open Science to the role of institutions in implementing these policies.

The workshop featured case studies of open science and open access policy development initiatives across Africa to stimulate discussion about what works and does not in such policy development and implementation initiatives. The event included a talk on localising research assessment in the context of open science.

In attendance were Deputy vice-chancellors in charge of research, head librarians, and deans in charge of early career researcher development (e.g. postgraduate researchers, PhDs, postdoctoral fellows, new lecturing staff).