Capacity Building for developing and managing Open Infrastructure systems for African Researchers
Funding Area: Capacity building / Construcción de capacidad
Problem Statement: According to the African Population and Health Research Center, Sub-Saharan Africa contributes just 1% of global scientific products such as patents, research papers, and peer-reviewed articles, with very little change over the last ten years. With the evolution of Industry 4.0, the need to have some collaborative systems that support the operations, training, sharing of resources and intellectual engagements is pertinent for African researchers today. However, given the challenges most African researchers face in terms of access to technologies, poor digital skills, the opportunities for virtual collaboration, resources sharing and online boot camp for knowledge creation and dissemination remain critical. International Association for Social Science Information Service and Technology (IASSIST) Africa given its national and international membership becomes well suited for the setting up and maintaining such an open infrastructure system. In setting up such systems, the technical knowledge and expertise is prudent and most African researchers lack these competencies. The need for data systems with improved and harmonized data governance for Africa to capitalize on big data generated from different research and unconventional data sources is critical for development. Therefore the inclusive component of capacity building of systems experts and users becomes critical for transforming the research and scholarship landscape.
Proposed Activities: 1 Project meeting to plan and Identify the required inputs November 2023 An international expert in open infrastructure Facilitation for meetings 2. Benchmarking of best practices of open infrastructure (Attachment) Jan 2024 (One week) An institution with good open infrastructure Facilitation for travel for the project lead 3.Training of core technical project team February 2024 International experts in open infrastructure Facilitation for Hands on training Training venue Laptops 4.Setting up of required open infrastructure systems and services April - June 2024 One international expert Core technical Project team Facilitation of the international expert Acquisition of the open infrastructure systems 5.Launch the African Researchers Open Infrastructure July 2024 Officials from NITA U The Media Venue Refreshments PAS Internet Connectivity (Makerere university to provide) 6. Identify and train the African researchers (Authorship, Research data management, data analysis, open publishing) Continuous from August 2024 Project technical team Internet connectivity Laptops 7. Open infrastructure maintenance Continuous from July 2024 Technical project team Facilitation for troubleshooting 8. Mid term review of the project November 2024 Project team Facilitation for meetings 9. Final project evaluation and report writing October 2025 Project team Facilitation for meetings
Openness: Much as this open infrastructure is meant to promote the development of research by African researchers, it will provide opportunities for engagement with the international scholars/ researchers since the system will be freely and openly accessed as part of the research ecosystem. Regular research activities that will be conducted will be shared and may be reused in compliance with the creative common license. Articles that will be produced through the ecosystem will be openly accessed around the world
Challenges: 1.Africa has a multiplicity of languages 2.Challenges of Internet connectivity 3.Abuse of the intellectual properties of African researchers 4.Inflation and unstable African economies 5.Dealing with researchers with special needs particularly with visual impairment
Neglectedness: This is the first time we are applying for this kind of project because it is a new and emerging trend in Africa. We have also not yet identified any other funder interested in funding open infrastructure in Africa.
Success: 1-200 of registered African researchers interested in participating in the project 2-200 African researchers trained in data literacy skills 3-Establishment of an open access Journal 4-Number of articles published in the open access journal
Total Budget: 24600
Budget File: pdf
Affiliations: Yes, IASSIST Africa Chapter and Makerere University, Kampala Uganda
LMIE Carveout: The project is located in Uganda in Africa. Uganda is categorized among the low income economies according to the World bank report of 2021. All the project team members are based and working in Uganda. The users, contributors and maintainers will all be based in sub Saharan Africa although the project output will be accessed openly.
Team Skills: 1- Prof. Okello-Obura – is a Professor of Information Science at Makerere University at EASLIS, College of Computing and Information Sciences and an Expert in University Academic Programmes Regional Accreditation. He has served as Head of Department, Dean and Principal of College of Computing and Information Sciences at Makerere University. Chairperson of IASSIST Africa Chapter and won several awards for distinguished academic and professional services provided. He has won several grants including MIT Carnegie supported project among others. He has a widely published scholar. 2. Dr. Robert S. Buwule is a scholar and has published several peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters and conference papers. He was on the organizing committee of the SCECSAL 2018 conference and the IASSIST African Workshop 2021. 3.Akello Cissy has expertise in various IT skills, including library management systems, website development and management, on line databases and e book platforms. I therefore have the proficiency to organize, catalog and disseminate information. She is currently a web admin for IASSIST Africa and APLESA. 4. Winny is the IASSIST Africa regional secretary. She has coordinated a number of projects both locally and internationally.. She was on the organizing committee of the IASSIST Annual conference held in Sweden in 2022, SCECSAL 2018 conference and the IASSIST African Workshops held in Uganda and Nigeria.
Submission Number: 77
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