ZARI Researchers Attend Seminar on Opening Access to Research Outputs

Lusaka, Zambia - Research scientists and research officers at the Zambia Agriculture Research Institute (ZARI) took part in a seminar on “Opening Access to Science and Technology Research”. The seminar which focused on agricultural research, was organized by ZARI Seminars Organizing Committee and the Zambia Agricultural Research for Development Information Network (ZAR4DIN), and covered:

Mr. Davy Simumba from ZARI presenting on ZAR4DIN

• Open Access (OA) Definition of Concepts/Terms
• Constraints to Agriculture Research Impact
• Benefits of Adopting OA Approaches
• Open Access Strategies
• Open Access Initiatives - Examples
• CIARD Initiative
• How to Promote Open Access

The seminar also looked at the ZAR4DIN project activities at the national level and within ZARI.  At the end of the seminar, the general consensus among the scientists was that ZARI should work towards enhancing the visibility of its research outputs.

The seminar was held at Mt. Makulu Research Station in Chilanga.

ZAR4DIN Stakeholders Train on AgriDrupal





AgriDrupal workshop participants and resource persons



The Zambia Agricultural Research for Development Information Network (ZAR4DIN) held a four-day training workshop on AgriDrupal from 22 to 25 March 2011. The objective of the workshop was to introduce particiants to how to use AgriDrupal for information management and sharing, with a focus on document repository management. The 12 participants on the workshop, held at Cosmic Executive Lodge in Lusaka, came from the following ZAR4DIN member institutions:

• Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI)
• National Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research (NISIR)
• Livestock Development Trust (LTD)
• National Agricultural Information Service (NAIS) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives
• University of Zambia Library
• National Science and Technology Council (NSTC)

The workshop was facilitated by Ms. Valeria Pesce, an AgriDrupal expert from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations based in Rome, Italy. The training is part of FAO and FARA's support to the agricultural research community’s effort to establish a formal national AR4D network in the country to facilitate access to AR4D information and knowledge, including metadata and full-text documents, through interlinked institutional repositories linked to a national AR4D portal.



AgriDrupal workshop in session



AgriDrupal has been developed specifically for use in managing document repositories and exchanging records among distributed repositories in agricultural based institutions. AgriDrupal incorporates the international AGROVOC Thesaurus, AGRIS Application Profile (AGRIS AP) for data exchange and RSS Feeds.

For detailed content of the workshop, please see: AgriDrupal training workshop for the ZAR4DIN project, 22-25 March 2011, Lusaka, Zambia