May 2023

WACREN is pleased to announce that registration for the next WACREN Annual Conference is now open! Next year’s Conference promises to be memorable, symbolic and highly impactful. This 10th edition holds multiple layers of significance: it brings the conference back...

After nine years of progress, LIBSENSE has evolved from a conceptual initiative into a transformative force, fostering impactful collaboration among NRENs, researchers, and librarians across Africa. The report comprehensively analyses the LIBSENSE initiative's achievements in building and advancing NREN-library partnerships...

The African Research and Education Network (REN) community has paid tribute to Dr. Boubakar Barry, the pioneering CEO of WACREN, whose visionary leadership profoundly shaped the continent's higher education and research networks. Dr. Barry, who passed away in September 2024,...

Women in WACREN 2024: Driving Innovation in Climate and Weather Data Analysis Approximately 90 ambitious women from across the WACREN region have received a significant boost in their journey to harness Python for climate and weather data analysis. Two impactful...

WACREN's Diamond Open Access Publishing efforts, driven by the LIBSENSE initiative, garnered significant attention at the 2nd Global Summit on Diamond Open Access (DOA), held at the University of Cape Town in December 2024. The well-attended event convened stakeholders from...

The Gambian Research and Education Network (GAMREN), represented by Dr. Mbemba Hydara, has completed a four-day study visit to the Ghana Academic and Research Network (GARNET) under the WACREN NREN CEOs Exchange Programme. This initiative, supported by the AfricaConnect3 project,...

WACREN has launched PIDsLink, a software platform for minting and resolving Archival Resource Keys (ARKs). Built on open-source software and reflecting a commitment to collaboration, PIDsLink is accompanied by the PIDsLink Management Dashboard, a user-friendly tool that simplifies the storage,...

The Coalition for Open Access Publishing of Public Health in Africa (COPPHA), in collaboration with Peoples-Praxis and WACREN, recently concluded a five-week Peer Review Course to enhance the quality of peer review within Africa's open-access publishing landscape. The course provided...

After three years of multistakeholder collaborative efforts to enhance robust digital education in Benin and Burkina Faso, the Africa Digital Campus pilot project ended with the announcement of project results at the closing conference in Cotonou. The conference was themed...

The Coalition for Open Access Publishing of Public Health in Africa (COPPHA) is a collaborative effort spearheaded by the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) in partnership with PublicHealth.Africa (PHA), AFREhealth, the West African Institute of Public...

In the past month, the enterprising Nigeria and Ghana cohorts of the LIBSENSE Early Career Researcher (ECR) Network leveraged various opportunities within the two countries to advocate for open science and research visibility. In Nigeria, the team organised a workshop...

A recent survey by EIFL on the operational landscape of Diamond Open Access (OA) journals has revealed critical insights into their functioning, challenges, and needs in Africa. The survey, encompassing various journals, highlights the significant reliance on volunteer work, institutional...