SciDev.Net

The Global Research Alliance is an organisation comprised of industrial research and technology transfer entities from nine countries, in both the North and the South, committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. GRA aims to undertake large-scale, large-impact projects for societal benefits, exploit organisational synergies, promote innovation and develop global knowledge networks for industrial competitiveness. Headquartered at CSIR (South Africa), it focuses on areas such as water, energy, indigenous knowledge, health, transportation and digital futures. Members include Battelle (United States), CSIR (India), CSIR (South Africa), CSIRO (Australia), Danish Technological Institute (Denmark), Fraunhofer Gesellschaft (Germany) SIRIM Berhad, TNO (Netherlands), and VTT Technical Research Centre (Finland).

HEDON is an online forum dedicated to household energy efficiency in the South. It aims to build a network of practitioners, policymakers, funders, and business-owners to collect and disseminate information on local, national, regional and international energy efficiency initiatives in the household energy sector.

HEDON publishes a journal, Boiling Point, with freely available archives dating back to 1982 as well as information on key topics, including forestry, gender, climate change and policy. It also publishes relevant news, events and announcements.

IEA Bioenergy was set up by the International Energy Agency in 1978, with the goal of fostering collaboration between countries with national bioenergy programmes. It undertakes a series of 'tasks', each with a work programme led by a participating nation. Ongoing tasks include analysing bioenergy systems and producing biomass from sustainable forestry.

The IAU, established by UNESCO (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), brings together higher education institutions and organisations from 150 countries worldwide. It publishes information on past conferences and links to key publications, research and policy statements.

Its resources cover topics such as sustainable development, access to higher education and internationalisation. Other information includes an events calendar, relevant links and news from its members.

The INHEA, supported by the Ford Foundation and housed at the Boston College Center for International Higher Eduation, is a network of academics, practitioners and policymakers working in higher education (HE) in Africa.

It publishes news, commentaries and research on key HE issues. It also provides a list of experts and researchers in HE in Africa, and links to organisations active in scholarship and development work. The INHEA's country profiles describe HE practice across Africa and provide data on enrolment and funding.

The International Press Centre for Biodiversity Research, run by the European-funded ALTER-Net project, links to biodiversity research news and press releases from universities and research institutes. It runs a networking service to put journalists in touch with biodiversity researchers willing to answer questions and provide comment on biodiversity issues. It also highlights relevant events.

ISESCO aims to promote the separate and distinct educational, scientific and cultural heritage that combines the 57 OIC member countries. The primary purpose of the organisation is to coordinate the activities of specialist agencies responsible for similar functions within each of the OIC member countries.

ISESCO has helped develop a number of action plans and strategies on an OIC-wide basis in areas such as water resources, university education and Islamic culture. ISESCO has also started awarding prizes in education and literacy, sciences and university research, and culture and communication to individuals within the OIC member countries.

LAMNET is a worldwide network of 48 institutions from 24 countries, funded by the European Commission. Its main objective is "to establish a trans-national forum for the promotion of sustainable use of biomass in Latin America and other emerging countries". It offers literature on bioenergy, including publications from journals, newspapers and conference proceedings.

This is an organisation of African scientists from different institutions that provides an atlas of malaria prevalence and risk in Africa. The website describes the data analysis that provides this geographical model of malaria, and aims to inform decision-makers on how to implement effective malaria control and treatment measures.

MARA is keen to disseminate its research results, and there are downloadable malaria poster maps and a user-friendly information tool, the MARA-LITe CD-ROM, which allows access to the results and products of the MARA project. Technical reports are also available in French.

MIM is an alliance of organisations and individuals working on tackling malaria. It aims to maximise the impact of scientific research on malaria in Africa by promoting capacity building and facilitating global collaboration to ensure that research translates into health benefits.

This website provides up-to-date information on funding opportunities for researchers in countries where malaria is widespread, and makes announcements of upcoming meetings. MIM works with several other malaria initiatives such as the World Health Organization's Roll Back Malaria effort to help coordinate the global response to malaria.

The MIMCom website is the hub of an electronic communication network that links African malaria researchers with the wider scientific world.

It may also be of use to non-scientists interested in malaria however, including policy makers, teachers and the media.

The site contains Internet resources such as databases and medical reference resources, links to malaria research organisations worldwide, online journals, discussion groups and training materials.

The site also hosts a monthly electronic newsletter containing abstracts of scientific articles, conference coverage, links to online news stories, and announcements about awards, meetings and training opportunities.

NanoChina offers a range of information services on nanotechnology in China. They include: a news service, advertising for nanotechnology products, business networking opportunities in China and trade directories in English and Chinese, reports on nanotechnology developments in China and the rest of the world, event planning for conferences, meetings, workshops and visits taking place in China. NanoChina also offers a specialised translation service from Chinese to English and vice-versa for reports, articles, news stories, newsletters, press releases, advertisements, conference and marketing literature. NanoChina was launched in February 2006 by the U.K. based Institute of Nanotechnology.