Please join us on February 18th, 2026, at 11 am CAT/12 pm EAT, for an insightful session with Mohamad Mostafa, where we explore how DataCite is advancing Open Science and boosting research visibility across Africa, with a use case presented by Ahmed Siyad (CEO, SomaliREN), and the session will be moderated by Harold Bowa.
We had scheduled this webinar in December, but it was rescheduled due to Zoom downtime on the original day. Now join us and learn how persistent identifiers (PIDs) and open metadata can transform the discoverability and impact of African research. Mohamad Mostafa will provide an overview of DataCite’s global community and services with practical use cases from across Africa, while Ahmed Siyad will highlight SomaliREN’s experience implementing open research infrastructure.
DataCite is a global community of research organizations united by a shared mission: to ensure research outputs and resources are openly accessible and well-connected.
This session offers valuable insights for repository managers, researchers, librarians, research support teams, and anyone committed to strengthening Open Science practices across the continent.
Speaker Profile
Mohamad Mostafa (DataCite)
Mohamad supports institutions and communities around the world in adopting open research practices and values through DataCite membership, services, and activities. He also serves as a member of the UNESCO Working Group on Open Science Infrastructures. With over a decade of experience in scholarly publishing, Mohamad has focused extensively on Open Access for journals and books. He contributed to launching the ORCID Arabic interface and served as a volunteer Crossref Ambassador, actively advocating for open research infrastructure.
Our guest speaker is Ahmed Siyad, CEO of SomaliREN
Ahmed Siyad is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Somali Research & Education Network (SomaliREN), leading its efforts to build digital infrastructure and connectivity for higher education and research in Somalia, with extensive experience in telecom and network development. One of SomaliREN’s recent successful initiatives is the establishment of the Somali Open Research & Education Repository – SORER – ( https://sorer.somaliren.org.so ), a national platform designed to promote open access, enhance the visibility of Somali research, and strengthen collaboration among higher education and research institutions.
This webinar series is co-organized by UbuntuNet Alliance (https://ubuntunet.net/) and Access 2 Perspectives (https://access2perspectives.org/) and supported by the African Open Science Platform (AOSP; https://aosp.org.za/)