Your Research Identity Matters
ORCID-WACA is driving persistent identifiers across West and Central Africa — so the region’s researchers and research show up where the world is looking.
PIDs Ambassadors
CoP Members Expected
Engagements Planned
Researchers to be Impacted
About ORCID-WACA
ORCID–WACA is a WACREN-led initiative, supported by the ORCID Global Participation Fund, to drive the adoption of ORCID across West and Central Africa and make the region’s researchers and research more visible, citable, and connected on the global stage.
The case for action is clear. Low adoption of persistent identifiers (PIDs) such as ORCID limits the visibility of African scholarship and reinforces the misconception that the continent produces little research. Most African researchers encounter ORCID only when submitting to a journal, institutional and journal mandates remain rare, and awareness is especially low outside STEM, making it difficult to attribute work accurately, demonstrate institutional productivity, or showcase the true impact of African scholarship.
Our Initiatives
PIDs Ambassadors
Meet the dedicated Ambassadors eager to inspire their communities and foster ORCID adoption and the use of Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) through engaging workshops and outreach initiatives across West and Central Africa!
Learn MoreCommunity of Practice
A collaborative forum for researchers, librarians, publishers, and administrators to share experiences and advance PID adoption.
Join the CoPWorkshops & Outreach
Hands-on workshops covering ORCID registration, profile optimization, and integration with research systems.
View ScheduleBenefits of ORCID for African Researchers
Solve Name Ambiguity
Your ORCID iD uniquely distinguishes you from other researchers with identical or similar names across international publication index ecosystems.
Save Time
Auto-fill manuscript submissions, grant funding applications, and institutional reporting fields automatically with your verified dataset profile.
Increase Visibility
Make your cross-disciplinary research outputs discoverable in global citation databases, institutional search vectors, and public engine repositories.
Connect Your Work
Link all your diverse contributions—publications, datasets, peer reviews, and university affiliations—in one permanent digital record.
Career Continuity
Your structural ORCID iD stays with you throughout your path, maintaining citations regardless of changes in your institution, country, or last name.
Privacy Control
You hold complete jurisdiction over your parameters. Set individual visibility scopes to Public, Limited to Trusted Systems, or completely Private.
Meet Our Ambassadors
15 dedicated researchers and professionals leading ORCID adoption across West and Central Africa
Dr. Eyouleki Palanga
Research LibrarianUniversité de Lomé
Prof. Ousmane Thiare
Director GeneralSénégalaise de l’Éducation
Dr. B. Telesphore
Director of ITUniversité Norbert Zongo
Ms. Oluwatoyin Aralepo
Financial ConsultantWACREN Region
Programme Timeline
Dec. 2025 - May 2026
Recruitment & Selection
June 2026
Ambassadors Onboarding & Orientation
June - August 2026
Implementation
July 2026
CoP Launch & Implementation
August - October 2026
Evaluation & Sustainability
Our Partners
Frequently Asked Questions
ORCID-WACA is a regional initiative led by the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN) to accelerate the adoption of ORCID and other persistent identifiers (PIDs) across West and Central Africa. It runs from December 2025 to October 2026 and is funded by the ORCID Global Participation Fund (GPF) Round 6.
The project works through a network of 15 selected Ambassadors who lead outreach, training, and integration activities in their countries and institutions, supported by a Community of Practice and a comprehensive bilingual (English/French) communications programme.
African researchers and their work are often underrepresented and difficult to discover in global scholarly databases. Name ambiguity, inconsistent author metadata, and limited integration with global PID infrastructure mean that legitimate African contributions are sometimes missed, miscredited, or under-cited.
ORCID-WACA addresses this by helping researchers, libraries, journals, and publishers adopt ORCID iDs and connect them to the systems that record and disseminate research outputs.
The project is organised around four strategic pillars:
- Visibility: Make African researchers and their work easier to find on the global stage.
- Adoption: Drive ORCID integration across institutions, repositories, and journals.
- Community: Connect peers across countries, languages, and roles through a regional Community of Practice.
- Legacy: Build durable capacity that continues beyond the project lifecycle.
There are several ways to engage: join the Community of Practice; request to be matched with an Ambassador in your country. Write to orcid-waca@wacren.net to start a conversation.
The Ambassadors are 15 individuals selected from across West and Central Africa who lead ORCID outreach, training, and integration in their countries and institutions during the programme period. They come from libraries, research offices, universities and journals and represent the diversity of roles, countries, and languages in the region.
The current cohort runs through the end of the project (October 2026). We are actively exploring follow-on activities and an expanded network beyond this round; sign up to the Community of Practice to stay informed when new opportunities open.
Yes. We welcome host institutions, co-organisers, and partner organisations across the 22 countries. Send a short note to orcid-waca@wacren.net with details of your institution, audience, and proposed activity, and the project team will follow up.
The Community of Practice (CoP) is the connective tissue of the project — a regional network of researchers, librarians, journal editors, and publishers who share knowledge, ask questions, and learn together. It is hosted on Google Groups so that members can participate by email or web.
Anyone in the region (or working with the region) who is interested in ORCID, persistent identifiers, and scholarly communication. Membership is free and open to researchers, library and information professionals, journal editors, publishers, research administrators, NRENs, funders, and policy stakeholders. Visit the Community of Practice page on the ORCID-WACA website and click “Join the Google Group”. You will need a Google account. Membership requests are reviewed and approved within one working day.
Yes. Members are welcome to post in English or French, and key resources and announcements are produced in both languages.