Dr. Fredrick Kiwuwa Lugya , the University Librarian at Busitema University, has been awarded a one-year 10,425 Euros grant from the DataCite Global Access Fund to promote open scholarship and open science among Consortium of Uganda University Libraries (CUUL) member institutions.

The DataCite Global Access Fund (GAF) was launched in 2023 with the support of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative . Its goal is to enable organizations worldwide to make their research outputs discoverable and connect to global open infrastructure. In January 2024, GAF announced the first cohort of organizations and projects that were successfully selected to receive GAF funding, and Dr. Lugya's project was among them.

Dr. Lugya's project aims to develop and deliver a five-day train-the-trainer workshop to librarians, ICT professionals, and research administrators selected from the Consortium of Uganda University Libraries. (CUUL) member institutions. The workshop will ignite a countrywide conversation on the benefits of open scholarship and open science and increase awareness of integrating DataCite infrastructure services to make research discoverable. 

The project also aims to create a publically available educational resource kit consisting of a training curriculum, guidelines for facilitating the training, training materials, and assessments on open scholarship, open science, and DataCite open infrastructure services. Each of the participating institutions in the training will be asked to prepare and deliver two similar trainings at their respective institutions annually.

This is a visionary project that will have a significant impact on increasing access to knowledge and promoting open scholarship and open science in Uganda. It is also a testament to Dr. Lugya's commitment to advancing the cause of open research and his expertise and research interest in open access.

The DataCite Global Access Fund is an essential initiative that is helping to democratize access to knowledge and promote open research worldwide. We congratulate Dr. Lugya on his achievement and wish him success in his efforts to promote open scholarship and open science in Uganda.