TCC Africa’s 2025 Year in Review: Building Africa’s Research Future

2025 has been a big year for TCC Africa and as the year comes to a close, we pause to celebrate a year of growth, collaboration and impact.

Over the year, we engaged thousands of early-career and published researchers from across the continent and beyond from a variety of programs and partnerships, directly supporting the push for African research to take its rightful place on the global stage.

Capacity Building

Capacity strengthening remained at the core of TCC Africa’s work in 2025. Our core calendar trainings in Scholarly Communication and Science Communication reached over 1,050 participants, equipping researchers with practical tools to bridge the gap between hard science and public understanding, craft competitive research proposals, and improve the visibility and impact of their work.

A major highlight under this programme was the delivery of workshops on Open Access AI tools, including Dimensions, Scholarcy, and Jenni AI, which reached over 6,000 academics globally, making this the strongest year yet for advancing research discovery. These sessions supported researchers in navigating the academic landscape, accelerating the research lifecycle, and increasing the global visibility of their outputs. The initiative expanded significantly through national launches and workshops in Benin, India, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, and Morocco, bringing together diverse research communities, from early-career scholars to senior institutional leaders.

Open Science Advocacy and Adoption

Advancing Open Science and responsible research practices continued to underpin our work throughout the year. Research integrity remained a key focus, with co-hosted workshops in Morocco and Kenya,  providing platforms for ethics review board members and institutions to reflect on ethical practices, strengthen national frameworks, and promote responsible research. Building on this momentum, TCC Africa also convened a virtual webinar on 15th December 2025, on Peer Review & Research Integrity in partnership with SciFiniti. The session addressed common gaps faced by early- and mid-career researchers by focusing on ethical peer review, responsible publishing, and emerging challenges in research integrity.

In Tanzania, we partnered with the Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) and PLOS to convene a Workshop for Journal Editors at the University of Dar es Salaam in August 2025. The workshop supported national efforts to strengthen the scholarly publishing ecosystem ahead of the launch of the Tanzania National Guidelines for the Recognition and Promotion of Scientific Journals, with discussions focusing on improving journal quality, credibility, and global visibility, while addressing challenges such as predatory publishing and limited indexing.

In Uganda, TCC Africa co-convened the Uganda Open Science Stakeholders’ Meeting on 24th September 2025, in partnership with UNCST, Makerere University, and PLOS. The meeting brought together stakeholders from across the country’s Open Science ecosystem to share findings from the Uganda Open Science Stakeholder Analysis, align priorities, and explore pathways for developing a national Open Science roadmap or policy.

Open Infrastructure

Under our Open Infrastructure programme, TCC Africa continued to strengthen institutional research systems and African-led digital infrastructure.

Hospitium RIS continued to strengthen institutional research systems within the healthcare sector. It is a Current Research Information System (CRIS) designed to manage and disseminate information about research activities in hospitals. In 2025, TCC Africa focused on building capacity around the system, supporting hospitals to improve research management and promote evidence-based healthcare practices.

We facilitated multi-session Medical Ethics Training for Senior Management at MP Shah Hospital in Nairobi, reinforcing accountability systems and ethical leadership. We also partnered with Mater Misericordiae Hospital to deliver capacity-building sessions that equipped healthcare professionals with core research skills, emphasizing the role of research in improving clinical practice and patient outcomes. Hospitium RIS was also showcased at the 7th EARIMA Conference in Entebbe, highlighting its potential to help hospitals centralize research information, streamline data management, and enhance healthcare delivery once fully implemented.

We also celebrated the continued progress of the Africa PID Alliance (APA), which advanced African-led digital infrastructure through the implementation of DOCID™, a persistent identifier system. This year, APA achieved key technical milestones, including full resolvability of core persistent identifiers, integration of ISNI for individual and organizational identities, and ongoing integration with Ringgold and the CSTR system from CNIC (China). To support reliable adoption, APA refined its metadata schema and integration framework, ensuring digital objects are documented with precision and cultural sensitivity, and enabling seamless linking, citation, and tracking of African research outputs and institutional contributions.

 APA also strengthened partnerships with universities, museums, and heritage institutions, conducted capacity-building sessions, and deepened global engagement to ensure African research, innovation, and cultural knowledge remain findable, accessible, and properly recognized worldwide. 

Read more about Africa PID Alliance’s 2025 milestones here: https://africapidalliance.org/news/ 

As 2025 comes to a close, the TCC Africa team wishes all our community members and partners a happy, healthy, and joyful holiday season. We are deeply grateful for your continued support, collaboration, and engagement, which have made this year of growth, innovation, and impact possible. Here’s to a prosperous 2026, filled with new opportunities, stronger partnerships, and even greater strides in advancing African research, Open Science, and digital infrastructure. Our best moments are yet to come!

Resources & Reports

Stay up to date with the latest progress and milestones from TCC Africa and the Africa PID Alliance (APA):

Africa PID Alliance (APA) Reports: https://africapidalliance.org/resources/ 

Visit the APA Newsroom: https://africapidalliance.org/news/ 

 to access all Q1–Q4 2025 reports and updates.

TCC Africa Quarterly Reports:

Q3 2025 Report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YUWc5CVeADeLT-oVD8f9k7SfV6oUaBov/view   

Q2 2025 Report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HfLirgvxgCON5KFSmO75G_a3bbj7Mwy0/view 

Q1 2025 Report: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12_Eo9RsxL9_chgYGJ3nxg0z-4y2qm8f3/view