The Consortium of Uganda University Libraries (CUUL) in partnership with Electronic Information for Libraries (EIFL) is organizing a national open access policy meeting to discuss and lay strategies to mandate open access to publicly funded research in Uganda. The objective of the meeting is to present good practices on open access policy development and implementation, address challenges, discuss and lay strategies for mandating open access to publicly funded research in Uganda.

This meeting is a follow-up to last year's first national conference on “Open Access, knowledge sharing and sustainable scholarly communication in Uganda” hosted by CUUL, EIFL and RUFORUM (The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture) on the 21st of May 2013.

At that conference Dr. J. C. Muyingo, Minister of State-Higher Education, called upon the National Council for Higher Education and Makerere University to put in place a system that ensures that all publicly funded research becomes freely and openly available – asserting that Ugandan academia cannot afford to be left behind. He has also encouraged researchers to publish in open access journals, and institutions to consider open access publications in promotion and tenure evaluation.

Among the speakers, there will be representatives of the National Council for Science and Technology (NCST), National Information Technology Authority - NITA Uganda, Research and Education Network for Uganda (RENU), Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA).They will discuss how visibility and impact of Ugandan and East African science and research could be improved to foster scientific and technological innovation, increase public understanding and appreciation of science and technology and to contribute to a prosperous science and technology led Ugandan and East African societies.

Dr. George Gitau Njoroge, Chief University Librarian, Kenyatta University, will present open access policies recently adopted by universities in Kenya such as Kenyatta University, Jomo Kenyatta University for Agriculture and Technology and Strathmore University.

EIFL-OA Programme Manager Iryna Kuchma will present international open access policies landscape and will facilitate the discussion.

Background 

The meeting is a part of the project “Open access: Knowledge sharing and sustainable scholarly communication in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda” funded by Spider, the Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions DSV, Department of Computer and System Sciences, Stockholm University.

For more information about the meeting, please contact EIFL Country Coordinators Florence Mirembe at fmirembe [at] ihsu.ac.ug and Judith Nannozi at judith.nannozi [at] gmail.com.

For more information about EIFL’s OA work in Uganda, contact EIFL-OA Programme Manager, Iryna Kuchma, at iryna.kuchma [at] eifl.net.