Research4Life launches website to coincide with sponsorship of World Conference of Science Journalists

London – Research4Life today announces 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.

155 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. For instance:

* How access to environmental research is being used by researchers in Africa to create sustainable watersheds
* Researchers in Kenya are unlocking the farming potential of arid and semi-arid lands
* Better knowledge of antiretroviral drugs in Uganda means that HIV/AIDS sufferers benefit from better treatment options

Mohammed Atani, Communications Director at UNEP for the OARE programme said: “Research4Life is having a significant impact on previously neglected research institutions within the developing world. The programmes are reducing the scientific knowledge gap between the industrialised world and developing countries. We are thrilled to announce the launch of www.research4life.org at the World Conference of Science Journalists, which has at its heart the discovery and reporting of great science.”

About Research4Life
Research4Life is the collective name for three public-private partnerships which seek to help achieve the UN’s Millennium Development Goals by providing the developing world with access to critical scientific research. Since 2002, the three programmes, Health Access to Research (HINARI), Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA) and Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE), have given researchers at more than 5,000 institutions in 108 developing world countries free or low cost access to over 7,000 journals provided by the world’s leading science publishers.

Research4Life is a public-private partnership of the WHO, FAO, UNEP, Cornell and Yale Universities and the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers. Together with technology partner Microsoft, the partnership’s goal is to help attain six of the UN’s eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015, reducing the scientific knowledge gap between industrialized countries and the developing world.

For further information please visit www.Research4Life.org or view the Research4Life YouTube channel.