Networking

Networking within and between stakeholder groups to build sustainable, practical and strategic partnerships

Facilitating interactions within and between stakeholder groups, building South–South and South–North connections, is a critical process. INASP supports such networks to exchange experience, skills and best practice. The outcomes of the exchanges are documented and shared.

Activities include support and facilitation of global and regional meetings, peer exchange visits, study visits, attendance at key professional face-to-face and online fora. Examples are:

• Researchers: an online Knowledge Community, known as AuthorAID@INASP, enables exchange of ideas and knowledge, as well as questions and answers about any aspect of research communication. AuthorAID@INASP matches inexperienced researchers with scientific and editorial mentors. These teams help authors to get their work published and to explain their work to new audiences such as scientists from outside their disciplines, journalists, practitioners and policy makers. In the longer term, the project will encourage authors who have participated and succeeded in publishing their own work to provide similar support and to help build systems within their institutions and research networks
• Editors: study visits between editors from developing and emerging countries and publishers or publisher associations globally to enable peer learning, increased awareness of the context and challenges facing editors in developing and emerging countries, and long term support networks and partnerships to be developed. Lessons learnt and best practice will be shared. INASP also maintains strategic partnerships with publishers and publishers associations. Journal editors can also participate in the online AuthorAID@INASP Knowledge Community and be supported to participate in face-to-face fora such as meetings of professional associations
• Librarians: support for meetings and dissemination of outcomes from key library fora such as SCANUL-ECS, SCAULWA, IFLA and national library association meetings. Also enabling librarians to work with publishers to explore how best to make the key transition to country ownership of access to research content. At the moment, the negotiations for deeply discounted subscriptions are necessarily led by INASP and all groups will need to work closely together to find out if and how negotiations can take place directly between publishers and partner countries
• ICT professionals: support will be provided for national and regional meetings, personnel and peer exchange for key ICT professionals at institutional and national levels. In particular INASP will focus on strengthening the ICT staff working with NRENs to enable them to cascade their knowledge and expertise to their member organisation’s ICT staff. Bringing together library consortia and associations and National Research and Educational Networks to establish best practice, shared approaches and solutions to common problems. INASP will provide opportunities for personnel and ideas exchange, strengthening the collaboration, understanding and day to day working of the providers of information (the library community) with the providers of the means of access (the ICT community)

Projects and Activities

Publications

Events