Advancing Research Through DataCite's Global Access Fund: African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA) 

The African Library and Information Associations and Institutions (AfLIA) is the umbrella body for the African library sector. It focuses on building the capacity of librarians and related professionals to promote equitable access to information, increase the visibility of African knowledge and research outputs, and adapt effectively to evolving knowledge and information trends in order to drive sustainable development on the continent. AfLIA's membership across 34 African countries has led to understanding and practicing Open Knowledge principles and practices. However, there was a noticeable lack of knowledge and understanding about the requisite Open Science infrastructure, which enables and supports the finding, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability of knowledge.

AfLIA applied for funding from DataCite's Global Access Fund (GAF) to create awareness of Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) as part of the open infrastructure needed to support Open Science. The awarded grant was targeted at running a workshop for at least 100 African librarians at the 2025 AfLIA conference and in producing a learning curriculum in the format of a short course that would give African librarians and information and communication technology (ICT) professionals working in academic and research libraries, knowledge and skills in open infrastructure. This is meant to lead them to understand the importance of visibility of African research and scholarship through DOIs and how to strategically use DataCite's services to promote open infrastructure, knowledge equity, and sustainable development through African libraries.

Fostering Open Research in Africa

AfLIA had distributed a baseline survey among African library professionals that revealed below-average knowledge and understanding of what persistent identifiers (PIDs) are and the role they play in making scholarship visible. Thus, PIDs and what they do to ensure that researchers, research outputs, research organizations, etc, are findable and accessible were introduced to African librarians through a Listen and Learn Session in May 2025. Interestingly, the 79 participants raised questions about how the use of metadata differs from the old cataloguing and classification methods, whether DataCite can be integrated into an existing Library Management System, and how one can merge the old and new (DOIs and classification schemes).

The answers to the questions were built into the in-person workshop presentation on 'Empowering Open Knowledge in Africa: Leveraging Persistent Identifiers and Open Research Infrastructure' which was held by Mohamad Mostafa, DataCite's Community specialist, and Nkem Osuigwe (Human Capacity Development & Training, AfLIA) later in May during the 6th AfLIA Conference & 8th African Library Summit in Windhoek, Namibia. The workshop provided over 200 participants from 18 countries with an overview of Open Science and libraries, why PIDs matter for the global visibility of African scholarship, and how GAF funding provided the leverage for AfLIA to create awareness about open and shared digital infrastructure. The workshop was interactive as participants were divided into groups to discuss the role of libraries in propagating Open Science principles and practices, probe their understanding of PIDs, the types of PIDs used in their library/institution, why they think their library/institution needs them, and barriers that have so far prevented their institution/library from adopting Open Research practices.

The workshop also gave participants the opportunity to learn how DataCite provides services beyond mere registration of DOIs, making research from Africa, including postgraduate theses, datasets, or indigenous knowledge objects, citable and discoverable. Furthermore, questions were raised about how to join DataCite and the type of membership models available. This led to discussions on success stories from African institutions that are already DataCite community members, as well as a low-cost, affordable membership model that could be adopted by AfLIA and its network of African libraries. The workshop also introduced a short course, 'Advancing Open Knowledge in Africa through Persistent Identifiers and Open Research Infrastructure,' which aims to increase the understanding of African librarians on why the provision of PIDs should become an embedded library service.

In October 2025, AfLIA's Open Access Week virtual summit with the theme, 'Who owns the knowledge?', also provided another opportunity for creating awareness about open research infrastructure and DataCite services as two presentations were made on how DataCite has been enabling Open Science practices in Africa, and how belonging to the DataCite community can provide African libraries with the PIDs needed to drive correct attribution and ownership for research outputs and knowledge from the continent.

The training course 'Advancing Open Knowledge in Africa through Persistent Identifiers and Open Research Infrastructure' consists of five modules emphasizing the crucial role of PIDs, such as DOIs, ORCID iDs, and ROR, in enhancing the visibility, accessibility, and integrity of African scholarship. A major focus of the course is how to use DataCite tools and membership models, particularly the consortium approach, as a practical and affordable path for African libraries and institutions to implement PIDs. The course was piloted by 56 participants from 13 African countries in November and December 2025.

From Outreach to Membership

The GAF-enabled in-person workshop, training course, and other outreach activities by AfLIA on the role of PIDs have created awareness among Africa's library professionals on the importance of creating sustainable visibility for African research and knowledge. A DataCite Consortium has been proposed with AfLIA as the lead organization. Already, there have been expressions of interest from three countries to be part of this AfLIA-DataCite Consortium and benefit from this cost-effective and sustainable membership model. By setting up this consortium, AfLIA aims to lead the way and demonstrate to national library associations on the ground the importance of adopting DataCite DOIs, investing in open research infrastructure, and enabling Open Science. Furthermore, insights from the first cohort of the training course developed through GAF will be integrated into the content, and a second cohort will be taken on in the second quarter of 2026 to continue the training on PIDs. It is expected that this would bring more members of the African library sector into the diversified DataCite community, supporting global equity and impact in research.