Bridging the digital divide at ESOF 2008, Europe's largest interdisciplinary science conference

Scientific panel examines developing country access to scientific research

Geneva, Switzerland, 17 July 2008 – HINARI Access to Research Initiative announced today that on July 19th at 14:30 it will hold a special panel discussion, "Bridging the Digital Divide by 2015: partnering to provide the developing world with critical research" at the 3rd EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF 2008) in Barcelona, Spain. ESOF 2008 will bring together 4000 scientists, researchers and decision makers to discuss the latest trends in science.

The "Digital Divide" panel will include representatives from the WHO, SciDev.net, Senegal, the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers and Elsevier to explore how HINARI, AGORA and OARE, three unique public-private partnerships are working in line with the UN's millennium goals to provide the developing world with access to critical research.

Over the past five years, 6000 journals with a subscription value of £3m per year have been made available to researchers in 4,000 developing world institutions, via these three programs. A recent impact analysis conducted by Elsevier, has shown that over the five-year period from 2002-2006, 105 HINARI countries saw a 63 percent growth in the number of authors publishing in peer-reviewed journals, compared to 38 percent in 102 non-HINARI countries – indicating that HINARI has had a significant impact on the participant countries' ability to engage with the global scientific community.

"The Digital Divide session will tackle critical issues such as: how is this successful public-private partnership tackling technical issues such as low bandwidth access or rolling out online training to researchers and librarians unfamiliar with online programs—not to mention garnering full support from local governments in developing countries?" noted David Dickson, panel facilitator and Director of SciDev.Net, a web-based organization that providing news and analysis about science and technology.

Panelist Dr. Mohamed Jalloh, a Urologist and HINARI trainer based in Senegal, remarked, "In medical work, training and research, information is crucial. We need to know what is done elsewhere. Before HINARI, finding information was very difficult. Now my hospital has the data we need in real time—and it solves the problem of training and treating our patients."