We brought together stakeholders from across Africa in this webinar to share insights on the adoption of ORCID and other Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) in Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and beyond. The session sparked rich conversations around the opportunities these tools offer for improving research visibility and collaboration, as well as the lessons learned in implementing them locally. Each presenter brought a unique perspective, making it a truly pan-African dialogue on strengthening research infrastructure.

Watch the recording

The slides are available at https://africarxiv.ubuntunet.net/handle/1/286

Session summary

The pan-African webinar on adopting ORCID and other persistent identifiers (PIDs) in countries including Kenya, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria showcased the transformative impact these tools have on research visibility and collaboration. Presenters emphasized that widespread ORCID adoption has streamlined researcher profiles, facilitated tracking of contributions, eliminated name confusion, and enhanced global recognition—benefits especially crucial for early-career researchers. Key challenges such as raising awareness and overcoming skepticism were addressed through workshops, integration of PIDs into funding and publication processes, and collaboration with libraries for researcher support.

The session highlighted the role of regional and continental cooperation in sharing best practices, training resources, and harmonizing policy frameworks, thereby amplifying African voices in global research infrastructure discussions. Participants learned the value of starting early with PIDs by creating and maintaining ORCID iDs and integrating them into institutional workflows for grants and manuscripts to increase efficiency and data quality. The importance of local champions like librarians and senior scholars in driving adoption was underscored, as well as the power of cross-border collaboration in sustaining long-term use.

African researchers and institutions were encouraged to embrace PIDs for reliable digital identities, facilitating recognition beyond national and disciplinary boundaries. Overall, the session portrayed ORCID and other PIDs as essential infrastructure to advance a connected, efficient, and visible African research ecosystem globally. This webinar formed part of a broader movement supported by ORCID’s Global Participation Fund, which has been actively fostering ORCID adoption through grants, community building, and integration projects across Africa.

Speaker profiles

Lombe Tembo is the Grant Program Officer and Engagement Lead at ORCID. She is responsible for improving equity of participation in ORCID in currently underrepresented areas, especially the Global South, as well as for growing membership and adoption in currently underrepresented regions whilst ensuring member satisfaction and value. She has a BA in Economics and an MA in Development Studies.

LinkedIn: /lombe-tembo/
ORCID:0000-0002-7532-7126

Dr. Penninah Musangi is the University Librarian and Director at Amref International University. Dr. Musangi also serves as the Treasurer, the Governing Board of Kenya Libraries and Information Services Consortium (KLISC).  She has been instrumental in the development and implementation of institutional repositories and open access policies in various universities in Kenya

LinkedIn: /dr-penninah-musangi/
ORCID:0000-0002-7532-7126

Cecile Coulibaly is coordinating the technical activities of the Digital Library for the Higher Education and Scientific Research in Côte d’Ivoire as the deputy director in charge of the scientific commissions at the Université Virtuelle de Côte d’Ivoire (Virtual University of Cote d’Ivoire).

LinkedIn: /Cecile-ouattara-coulibaly/
ORCID: 0000-0003-3792-1527

Owen Iyoha is the CEO of the Eko-Konnect Research and Education Initiative. He oversees infrastructure development, capacity building, and advocacy with the goal of developing all aspects of research and education network and its community in Nigeria.

LinkedIn: /owen-iyoha/
ORCID: /0000-0002-0978-2358

About the webinar series

This webinar was co-organized by UbuntuNet Alliance and Access 2 Perspectives as part of the ORCID Global Participation Program.

ORCID is the persistent identifier for researchers to share their accomplishments (research articles, data, etc with funding agencies, publishers, data repositories, and other research workflows.

AfricArXiv is a community-led digital archive for African research communication. By enhancing the visibility of African research, we enable discoverability and collaboration opportunities for African scientists on the continent as well as globally.