INASP and Research4Life Launch Research Advocacy Competition
Global case study competition spotlights how users in the developing world have successfully advocated for a sustainable research culture.
London, United Kingdom June 28, 2016 – INASP and Research4Life have announced today a competition to recognize the critical role that researchers, librarians, policymakers, doctors and other professionals play in advocating their leaders to support research in their institutions and countries. The competition calls for case studies demonstrating how users have overcome hurdles to boost critical leadership support for the information and infrastructural resources needed to improve evidence based health care, agriculture and environmental policies as well as basic research in their countries.
Over the last two decades, INASP and Research4Life have worked to close the information gap between developed and developing countries by providing free or low cost access to academic, scientific, and professional peer-reviewed content online and providing the necessary training to support researchers, practitioners, librarians and authors in building viable research ecosystems. The competition will run from June 28th to September 15th and highlight best practice in garnering support from leaders to improve the sustainability of this access and usage. Case studies will be reviewed by a committee of distinguished international partners from the INASP and Research4Life communities.
Julie Brittain, Executive Director of INASP says: “Since 2002, INASP has been working with libraries, library consortia and publishers to supply relevant and appropriate online literature to academics and researchers in all fields. Top level support from institutional leaders has enabled librarians to provide access to much needed content and to build awareness and use among academics, researchers and students. We are keen for all those involved to share stories of how they have gathered support from decision makers and budget holders, as this is the key to on-going, long term access to research literature.”
“Since 2001, Research4Life has been working to provide access to critical research in the developing world. Our reach has grown to 117 countries and 69,000 journals, books and databases, but we realize more than ever that it can only be truly sustainable if leaders “upstream” of practitioners, researchers, and librarians are equally supportive of this need,” said Richard Gedye, Chair of the Executive Council for Research4Life and Director of Outreach Programmes at the International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers, “Our competition aims to celebrate and share those advocacy successes.”
The INASP/Research4Life Advocacy Competition is open to all researchers, practitioners, librarians and policymakers whose institution is a registered user of one of the Research4Life programmes – Hinari, AGORA, OARE and ARDI or has access to research through an agreement mediated by INASP. Submissions will be accepted through http://www.research4life.org/research4life-inasp-advocacy-competition. The winner be announced in November and invited to present their work at the annual Publishers for Development conference and Research4Life General Partners Meeting in the UK in July 2017. Three contributing Research4Life partners have pledged prizes: Elsevier will provide the winner with a travel grant to cover their attendance at these meetings, SAGE Publishing has offered a one year subscription to a major reference work and Taylor & Francis will provide an honourable mention award.
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About INASP
INASP (www.inasp.info) is an international development charity working with a global network of partners to improve access, production and use of research information and knowledge, so that countries are equipped to solve their development challenges.
About Research4Life
Research4Life (www.research4life.org) is a public-private partnership between over 200 international scientific publishers, the World Health Organization (WHO), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), Cornell and Yale Universities and several technology partners. The goal of Research4Life is to reduce the knowledge gap between high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries by providing affordable access to critical scientific research. Since 2002, the four programmes – Research in Health (Hinari), Research in Agriculture (AGORA), Research in the Environment (OARE) and Research for Development and Innovation (ARDI) – have provided researchers at some 8,000 institutions in more than 100 low- and middle-income countries with free or low-cost online access to nearly 70,000 leading journals and books in the fields of health, agriculture, environment, and applied sciences.
Media Contacts:
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Natalia Rodriguez
Communications Coordinator
Research4Life
[email protected]
@r4lpartnership
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Alex Kealey,
Communications Officer
INASP
[email protected]
@INASPinfo
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