4th Open Science in the South Conference – Rabat 2026
Capacity Building for Enhancing Scientific Visibility and Impact
Venue: Rabat, Morocco – National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco
Dates: 23–26 November 2026
Synopsis
Advancing open, inclusive, and collaborative science is essential to achieving the aspirations of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 “The Africa We Want,” and, more broadly, to accelerating progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science provides a comprehensive normative framework to promote openness, inclusivity, and equitable access to scientific knowledge, encompassing publications, data, and software. It also underpins the implementation of the International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development, a global initiative designed to mobilize science in support of sustainable development. Together, these frameworks position open science as a strategic lever for aligning national policies and practices while respecting disciplinary diversity and regional specificities. By reaffirming the principle of academic freedom, they support countries in addressing context-specific challenges, particularly those related to digital, technological, and informational inequalities. The Pact for the Future, adopted by world leaders in 2024, further reinforces this agenda by promoting policies that facilitate access to scientific knowledge, strengthen research collaboration, and harness science for sustainable development.
In this context, open science should not be understood merely as a mode of dissemination, but as a systemic transformation encompassing research practices, incentive structures, and infrastructures.
Such a transformation enhances the visibility, accessibility, reproducibility, and reuse of scientific outputs, thereby increasing their relevance for policymakers, economic actors, and society at large. It contributes to generating measurable and sustainable impact, fostering socio-economic development, and strengthening trust among scientific communities, public authorities, and civil society.
Since its inception in 2019, the Open Science in the Global South conference has become a key platform for dialogue between policymakers and research communities, promoting the alignment of strategies and frameworks for action. It aims to advance South–South cooperation and to stimulate the development of intra- and interregional partnerships in open science.
The fourth edition of the conference seeks to examine how open science can enhance the visibility and impact of research, and to identify actionable pathways to :
- accelerate the development of public policies that recognize diverse knowledge systems and promote equitable knowledge sharing
- strengthen collaborative approaches to capacity building in open science
