Nairobi & Lagos- 2nd September 2026.
The Africa PID Alliance (APA), under the Open Infrastructure Program of the Training Centre in Communication (TCC Africa), has partnered and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Lagos (UNILAG) to strengthen research visibility and advance open research infrastructure through the integration of persistent identification and automated research data harvesting technologies.
At the centre of the collaboration is the integration of DOCiD™ with the University of Lagos’ existing crawler technology, enabling the automated harvesting and organization of research publications and metadata from institutional repositories and approved scholarly sources. The integration is designed to reduce manual processes, improve metadata quality, and make institutional research outputs easier to discover, track, and connect.
The University of Lagos’ crawler currently harvests research outputs from 11 sources, including Crossref and African Journals Online (AJOL), and has achieved 98% attribution accuracy. The collaboration will further explore the integration of persistent identifiers and other metadata elements to strengthen connections between researchers, publications, collections, and institutions.
“We need to ensure that African knowledge and research resources are visible, identifiable, and accessible within the global research ecosystem,” said Joy Owango, Project Lead at the Africa PID Alliance. “This requires infrastructure that recognises African frameworks and supports the integration of indigenous knowledge, cultural heritage, research outputs, and their associated identifiers.”
The partnership will also support the preservation and visibility of indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage, alongside enhanced institutional research analytics and reporting. The teams will undertake further testing using University of Lagos datasets as they work toward wider integration and deployment.
“Integrating DOCiD™ with the University of Lagos’ research infrastructure will strengthen how we manage, connect and showcase our scholarly outputs. By improving metadata quality, automating data harvesting and establishing trusted links between researchers, publications , grey literature and the institution, this collaboration will enhance the discoverability and global visibility of UNILAG’s research while supporting the long-term preservation of indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage,” said ,Prof. Olatokunbo Christopher OKIKI, University Librarian,University of Lagos.
The collaboration marks an important step toward building interconnected, efficient, and African-led research infrastructure, ensuring that valuable research outputs and knowledge can be more effectively identified, accessed, preserved, and amplified.
About Africa PID Alliance
The Africa PID Alliance is dedicated to securing the future of African innovation, indigenous knowledge, and cultural heritage. Through the provision of reliable open research infrastructure services, the alliance enables access to knowledge and metadata about digital objects, with a strong emphasis on Africa’s unique contributions to global research.
The Africa PID Alliance is the Open Infrastructure program of the Training Centre in Communication.
For more information, visit: https://africapidalliance.org/
Email: info@africapidalliance.org
About the University of Lagos (UNILAG)
The University of Lagos (UNILAG) is a leading Nigerian university committed to advancing teaching, research, innovation, and community development. Established in 1962, the university has grown into a major centre of academic and research excellence, with a strong focus on addressing local and global challenges through knowledge and innovation.
UNILAG is committed to strengthening research, promoting knowledge exchange, and supporting the preservation and advancement of indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage. Through its research and community engagement initiatives, the university works to create, preserve, and share knowledge while fostering collaboration that contributes to sustainable development and societal impact.
For more information, visit: https://unilag.edu.ng/