Qatar National Library and Knowledge e partner to host third Open Research Conference in Doha

Qatar National Library announced today that it has entered into a partnership with Knowledge e, an organization dedicated to enhancing access to knowledge around the world, to organize the third annual Middle East and North Africa Open Research Forum in Doha as part of its initiative to support… Free access to scientific and scholarly research, starting on October 21 next year.
An elite group of policymakers, researchers and information experts attended the three-day forum to promote the spread of open science across the Arab world.
This year’s forum, with the motto “Translating Knowledge into Practical Outcomes”, invites information experts, researchers and policymakers in the field of open science to participate and give speeches in Arabic or English before June 1 next year.
In this regard, Dr. Al-Waleed Al Khaja, Director of the Open Access and Copyright Department at Qatar National Library, said: “The Library’s ongoing efforts to support open access initiatives are fundamental to achieving its mission and these efforts have played an important role in strengthening the partnership between the Library and the Knowledge E Foundation, including… It demonstrates its commitment to supporting open access publishing and ensuring opportunities are provided so that all researchers in the State of Qatar can publish. We look forward to exploring opportunities to collaborate with regional institutions to provide equitable opportunities to publish open research and support the open science ecosystem in the region.”
Dr. Emily Choinowski, Co-founder and Director of Operations of the Annual Open Research Forum for the Middle East and North Africa, said: “We are delighted to partner with Qatar National Library for this year’s Annual Open Research Forum. This year the Library has emerged as a leading beacon for open access in the region and…provides the best collaborative practices and an ideal partner to support our mission of ensuring equity and inclusion in education for all. In addition to supporting the creation of a true regional collaborative community of open science advocates in the Arab world.”
Qatar National Library said it believes that knowledge should be freely available to everyone, without restrictions and without discrimination, and based on this, the Library spares no effort to provide unrestricted online research services to all beneficiaries, researchers and scholars throughout the Arab world and the Middle East, as evidenced in its wide range of services supporting the State of Qatar in the dissemination of research results worldwide.
Notably, the Qatar National Library is a leader in open access publishing research in the Middle East and North Africa, thanks to the many initiatives and services it provides to ensure that knowledge is widely disseminated and without any restrictions. These services include a program to cover the costs of publishing research papers in open access journals, and since 2018, the library has funded more than 5,000 research papers and 2,019 researchers from 45 different institutions in Qatar. Last year, open access was supported by the launch of the “Manara” platform, which became a repository for Qatari research and ensures permanent free access to research outputs from the State of Qatar. The platform publishes traditional research outputs such as “research papers, conference proceedings, in addition to non-traditional outputs such as datasets, software, multimedia materials, posters and presentations in Arabic and English. The Manara platform currently contains about 5,000 research materials, which have been viewed or downloaded more than 300,000 times.
Notably, the Knowledge E Humanities Foundation launched the Forum for Open Research in the Middle East and North Africa (FORM) in 2022, an independent non-profit initiative to support the research community and stakeholders in the region in achieving a more open world of knowledge. The Forum aims to promote… the exchange of ideas and develop practical policies to ease the global shift towards sustainable, inclusive and accessible research and education models.