Research4Life collective website for developing countries

UK Research4Life launches website – 07 Jul 2009

Research4Life has announced the launch of www.research4life.org.. The website will act as the public face of the Research4Life partnership for journalists, partners and institutions considering joining one of the programmes. It will include news about the programmes, information on the partners and participating institutions, testimonials and case studies.

Research4Life is the collective name given to HINARI, AGORA and OARE, the three public-private partnership programmes of the WHO, FAO, UNEP, Cornell and Yale Universities and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers. One hundred and fifty five publishers now participate in the programmes, including Elsevier, Springer, Wiley-Blackwell and Oxford University Press and many university and learned society presses. Together with technology partner Microsoft, Research4Life seeks to help achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals by providing the developing world with access to critical up-to-date scientific research.

The website features examples of how the programmes are having a real-world impact on developing countries.

Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter 7/7/09

UN Environment Programme — Global Resource Information Database

The UNEP has added another to its panoply of resources: The Global Resource Information Database (GRID) has been developed by the USGS EROS Data Center and Google Maps by employing remote sensing, geographic information systems (GIS), and online mapping tools to create this free resource for use of geographers, political scientists, environmental researchers and policy decision-makers. “The atlas highlights sites around the world that have witnessed such dramatic environmental changes as glacial melt, desertification, deforestation, pollution, and population growth.”

Source: “Best Free Reference Websites, Ninth Annual List”, Reference & User Services Quarterly, Vol. 47(1), Fall, 2007.

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United Nations Environment Programme

The Mission of the UNEP:
“To provide leadership and encourage partnership in caring for the environment by inspiring, informing, and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations.”

Focus areas of the UNEP:

Biodiversity, Business & Industry, Chemicals, Civil Society and NGOs, Energy, Environmental Assessment, Freshwater, Governance & Law, Land, Marine & Coastal Areas, Ozone, Sustainable Consumption, Urban Issues

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