Season’s Greetings and Year- End Reflections from TCC Africa

As we close 2024, we reflect on a year that has not only been transformative for Africa but also for the global academic community. This year, Africa’s voice grew stronger, its influence spread wider, and its innovations shaped new possibilities.  

At TCC Africa, we were privileged to be part of this journey. One of the year’s most defining moments came with the inclusion of Open Science principles in the East African Community (EAC) Regional Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) Policy 2023-2033. This historic achievement, a result of our partnership with PLOS and EASTECO, has set a precedent for embedding Open Science into regional policy frameworks, unlocking opportunities for researchers and communities across East Africa.  

Beyond this, we continued to enhance research visibility through our initiatives such our open infrastructure program, the  Africa PID Alliance. This initiative,brings together a community of Persistent Identifier (PID) advocates to address the growing need for scholarly data infrastructures across the continent. Given Africa’s diverse economic development and the vast volume of gray literature, many African universities face challenges in providing DOIs for all their research outputs. The Africa PID Alliance is responding by developing a hybrid digital object identification system, DOCiD™️, bridging locally created handles (prefix 20) with globally recognized DOIs (prefix 10) to offer a unified framework for identifying and preserving digital objects. The ongoing development of this framework supported by partnerships with registration agencies like Crossref and Datacite, has already begun to shape the future of African research data management and dissemination. Learn more https://africapidalliance.org/ 

Equally important was our focus on people. Through our capacity-building initiatives, we supported over 5,500 early career researchers, equipping them with skills in science and scholarly communication, data management, and open access tools. These trainings are the cornerstone of our mission to empower the next generation of African scholars to lead in a rapidly changing world.  

This year has shown us the power of collaboration, innovation, and resilience. We are grateful for the partnerships, communities, and individuals who continue to inspire our work. Together, we are shaping a future where Africa’s academic and research contributions take their rightful place in the global knowledge ecosystem.  

As we celebrate this holiday season, we wish you joy, peace, and prosperity in the year ahead. May the new year bring even more opportunities for growth, collaboration, and success! 

Warm regards,  

The TCC Africa Team