In a groundbreaking development for African research, ten national research funders from the continent have been indexed in Dimensions, the world's largest linked research database. This milestone was achieved through a collaborative effort involving Digital Science, the Africa PID Alliance (APA), the Association of African Universities (AAU), the Training Centre in Communication (TCC Africa), and the Research Organization Registry (ROR). The initiative aims to enhance the visibility and transparency of African research investments and outputs on a global scale.
Joy Owango, Executive Director of TCC Africa and Project Lead at the Africa PID Alliance, emphasized the significance of the project. "This project connects the research outputs from leading African funding bodies to the global research ecosystem," Owango stated. "Indexing and linking their data in Dimensions allows these African national funders to increase transparency around their research investments, demonstrate the impacts and outcomes of funded projects, facilitate new regional and global collaborations, inform strategic funding priorities through insights on research trends, and amplify Africa’s overall research contributions on the international stage."
This project marks a significant step forward for African research, which has traditionally faced challenges due to limited access to science repositories and a lack of openly shared data. Professor Olusola Bandele Oyewole, Secretary-General of the AAU, highlighted the shift in the African research landscape. "The continent has few science repositories and data there are rarely openly shared," he noted. "We are, however, moving in a new direction that now opens doors for more research collaboration and increases the sharing of data, thereby promoting trust among researchers and availing data to policymakers to use in making important decisions."
The Science Granting Councils Initiative (SGCI), which encompasses 17 public science funding agencies across Sub-Saharan Africa, has played a crucial role in this endeavour. Before this project, there was limited global awareness of the research investments and outputs from most of these key funders, except for South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF), which had already been indexed.
The newly indexed funders include organizations such as the National Research Fund (Kenya), the National Commission For Science, Technology & Innovation (Kenya), the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology, Uganda National Council for Science and Technology, Malawi National Commission for Science and Technology, Fundo Nacional de Investigacao (Mozambique), Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) (Nigeria), National Science and Technology Council (Zambia), and the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (Ghana).
Amna Babiker, Director of Government and Funders – Middle East & Africa at Digital Science, expressed optimism about Africa’s evolving research landscape. "Africa’s research landscape has been undergoing rapid change, with many nations recognizing the importance of research to their future economic, cultural, and societal prosperity. It’s been a pleasure working with our many partners in Africa to understand what role Digital Science can play in helping African research institutions reach their potential and for their voices to be heard within global research," she said.
Efforts are underway to index the remaining seven councils to fully capture funding across the 16 SGCI participating nations. In the long term, indexing the SGCI funders lays the groundwork for more effective research management, evidence-based policy-making, and amplifying the impacts of African research outputs globally.
Article by Nyokabi Wanjiku
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