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,

As we count down to the start of International Open Access Week, we’re delighted to share a short message from our Co-founder and Director, Dr. Emily Choynowski, highlighting how our Annual Forum serves as a regional focal point for International Open Access Week, offering a platform for collaboration and bringing together institutions, researchers, and advocates from across the Arab world to exchange ideas, strengthen networks,

The programme for the 4th Annual Forum for Open Research is now available! With 26 sessions, delivered by 88 speakers from 60 institutions in 27 countries, this will be a truly engaging and high impact event. View Programme Reflecting the conference title – Becoming Open: Capacity Building and Community Collaboration in the Arab World – and aligning with the UAE’s Year of Community, the conference

We’ve been rather quiet in recent weeks, focusing on logistics and planning for the 4th Annual Forum, and we are excited to announce that this year’s event will be organised under the patronage of ALECSO. The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) is a Tunis-based specialised institution working under the umbrella of the League of Arab States. It is essentially concerned with the

We are very excited to announce that registration for the 4th Annual Forum for Open Research is now open! This year, we are again offering the option of both online attendance and in person attendance for our delegates and presenters. And to ensure the event is truly accessible, online attendance will be free (though we hope lots of you will still join us in person!)

We closed our Call for Papers for the 4th Annual Forum for Open Research last week, and now we have conducted the initial processing of submissions – we are delighted to see so many of our network have contributed proposals. With a record level of submissions (up by 17% on last year), from 55 countries across the world and almost 150 different institutions – we

Each year at the Annual Forum, we select our keynotes to provide valuable insights that help to frame and contextualise the overarching theme chosen for that year, helping to shape and drive the discussions and debates for the whole event. For our 4th Annual Forum, taking place this year in the UAE in partnership with the American University of Sharjah, it is our huge pleasure

We want to thank our first sponsors for this year’s Annual Forum for Open Research. We could not achieve our mission to support the advancement of open science in the Arab world without you! Sponsorship allows us to organise the Annual Forum, bringing together key regional stakeholders from libraries, universities, advocacy groups, and government organisations to share solutions and build collaborations. Sponsorship also allows us

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 –

If you are attending the 4th Annual Forum for Open Research, as a speaker, as a sponsor or as a delegate, share the exciting news with one of our digital announcement cards! Let your network know you will be joining us in the UAE this October, at the American University of Sharjah, and make the most of your conference experience by developing and exploring your