LIBSENSE: Building Library/NREN Collaborations around Open Science

What is LIBSENSE?
In 2017, a new initiative called Library Support for embedding NREN1 services and eInfrastructure (LIBSENSE2) was conceived during the second annual conference of the West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN)3
. 
WACREN had just come to the end of their participation in two collaborative European Union (EU) research projects in the region (Sci-GaIA4 and TANDEM5), and were planning ongoing strategic engagements with the research and education community in West Africa to continue embedding network and connectivity services for this end-user group. While one project was about infrastructure (Sci-GaIA), the other was about advocacy of the NREN as a catalyst for digital transformation of the sector (TANDEM). TANDEM project team members recognised the key role that librarian consortia within the research and education community could play in sustaining advocacy work in raising awareness of the digital/technological services that could be offered to universities and other higher education institutions (HEIs) within the West African region.