The United Arab Emirates is setting up a $10 billion foundation --the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation-- to fund scientific research in the Arab world. For details, see Wagdy Sawahel's May 25 story in SciDev.Net.
Comment. This seems to be the first research funding agency created in the Arab world since September 2006, when participants in the Second Gulf-Maghreb Scientific Congress (Riyadh, February 25-26, 2006) issued the Riyadh Declaration on Free Access to Scientific and Technological Information. The new foundation probably hasn't yet considered requiring OA to the results of the research it funds. But the best time to start the process is now, during the planning stage. Is anyone in a position to ask the new foundation to follow the principles of the Riyadh Declaration?
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/29/2007 02:40:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
