This year’s Annual Forum for Open Research in MENA, our 4th in the event series, was a huge success! It was held in was held in Sharjah (UAE), at the American University of Sharjah who generously agreed to be our host partners. We were also honoured to have ALECSO as our Patron this year.
With 154 in person delegates from 14 countries and 84 institutions, and 794 online delegates from 73 countries and 600 institutions – this was a truly rich event filled with valuable insights, allowing delegates to share ideas, discuss challenges and exchange solutions. The event was further enriched with four outstanding workshops on the final day for in-person delegates, which were offered for free to everyone in the UAE’s research and librarian communities. These workshops covered key themes including pivoting university research cultures to prioritise sociocultural impact, publisher agreement negotiation tactics for libraries, AI for librarians and researchers, and research integrity practises. In addition, we had a number of other elements, including our second Annual General Meeting and a Signing Ceremony to welcome new member organisations joining FORM.
The overarching message of this year’s Annual Forum was the crucial importance of community, communication, and collaboration. What really came across during the event is that we as a community, as a diverse group of open science supporters and advocates from libraries, research centers, medical organisations, universities, and advocacy groups from across the arab states and beyond – we have already achieved so much. We’ve started from scratch and achieved tangible change. And that’s really inspiring – and that has been very clear in the responses we have got from the audience both here and online, from the testimonials from people listening to what you are sharing.
Many thanks to our speakers, our sponsors, our wonderful partner, our patron and all our delegates!
A full report of the event and activities is now available below.
