Under
the guidance of His Excellency Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, founder of Talal
Abu-Ghazaleh Global and Chairman of the Arab States Research and Education
Network (ASREN), and under the patronage of His Excellency Mr. Moncef Boukthir,
Tunisian Minster of Higher Education and Scientific Research, the National
Conference on “Open Science – The Way Forward” was successfully conducted in
Tunisia, with the participation of more than hundred high-level representatives
of government institutions, universities and research institutions from
Tunisia.

Organized
by ASREN and the Tunisian Computing Center al Khawarizmi (CCK), this national
conference was held with the aim of benefiting the research and education
community in Tunisia. The two-day conference featured a number of renowned
speakers and experts from Tunisia and the region, sharing best practices,
spotlighting trends and exchanging information with focus on Open science and
Open Access, including topics related to: Artificial Intelligence, NRENs,
Clouds, Infrastructures and Science Cooperation.

In
his speech, Mr. Boukthir appreciated ASREN’s role in leading the regional
research and education infrastructures and in supporting the developments at
the national level in the region, saying: “ASREN plays a significant role in
promoting and inaugurating scientific cooperation and scientific dialogue in
the region, especially in open science and open access, and we affirm our
support to these efforts towards building an “Arab Open Science Platform”,
similar to the “European Open Science Cloud”, in cooperation with the local and
the regional partners, especially the European Union and UNESCO.”

Mr.
Boukthir thanked the European Union for its positive impact on the evolution of
infrastructure in Tunisia and the region, largely within the framework of its
co-funded projects EUMEDCONNECT and AfricaConnect. He declared at the same time
Tunisia's participation in the Medusa project, which is expected to become
operational in 2025, to provide long term development of the NRENs in the
region.

On
this occasion, Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, ASREN Chairman stressed the importance
of the outcomes of the conference and said: “We are proud of our achievements
in developing the research and education infrastructure in the Arab region. We
will continue the efforts towards a productive science dialogue with the
European Union, especially to support the proposal submitted to the European
Union regarding Science Collaboration, also ASREN’s event on “Arab Science
Cooperation Summit” due to take place during the 77th United Nations General
Assembly, on 23 September 2022, to support collaborative scientific research
regionally and globally.”

Dr.
Abu-Ghazaleh also welcomed the Medusa project in cooperation with the European
Union to provide high-capacity connectivity between the North African countries
and Europe with a lifetime of 25 years. He emphasized the importance of the
continuation of holding workshops and national conferences in cooperation
between ASREN and Arab NRENs, as the next national conference will be held in
Morocco during the first week of October jointly with the Moroccan Academic and
Research Network (MARWAN).

The conference was preceded by a regional
meeting on July 18, which was attended by NRENs partners from Morocco, Tunisia,
Somalia, Palestine, Egypt and Jordan, to discuss and plan their support to
research and education communities in terms of providing the appropriate
infrastructures and the necessary services to these communities with Open
science and Open Access in mind as a priority.