Joy Owango
Joy Owango is an internationally recognized leader in Open Science advocacy, research infrastructure development, and scholarly communication in Africa. She is the Executive Director of the Training Centre in Communication (TCC Africa), the first Africa-based centre dedicated to strengthening scientists’ skills in scholarly and science communication, enhancing research visibility and impact across the continent.
Owango is also a co-founder of the Africa PID Alliance, a pan-African initiative advancing the adoption and integration of Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) to strengthen research discovery, attribution, and interoperability in African research ecosystems. Through this work, she has championed the development of DOCiD (Digital Object Container Identifier), a federated PID container that links identifiers such as ORCID, ROR, CSTR, Crossref, DataCite, RAiD, and Handle into machine-actionable research objects aligned with FAIR Digital Object principles.
Her work promotes responsible data governance, equitable participation in global research infrastructure.
Sessions
In the AI era, the explosive growth of science and technology resources and interdisciplinary convergence have posed unprecedented challenges to knowledge infrastructure. Ensuring that massive science and technology resources are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR principles) on a global scale has become a central issue in the development of open science. As the "digital ID card" for digital objects, Persistent Identifiers (PIDs) serve as the critical technical foundation for connecting fragmented knowledge and building a trustworthy research ecosystem.
In this workshop focuses on the opportunities and challenges of PID infrastructure in the AI era, exploring how persistent identifiers empower artificial intelligence to understand and connect scientific knowledge. Representatives from DataCite, South China Botanical Garden, Chinese National Space Data Center and Africa PID Alliance are invited to share practices across different identifier systems and regions
The Digital Object Container Identifier (DOCiD), developed by the Africa PID Alliance, creates a federated framework that transforms fragmented research identifiers into interoperable, machine-actionable digital objects. By integrating ORCID, ROR, Ringgold, CSTR, DataCite, Crossref, Handle, and RAiD, DOCiD aggregates researchers, institutions, outputs, projects, and infrastructure into a single structured container aligned with FAIR Digital Object principles. This session showcases DOCiD’s architecture, highlighting layered PID integration and real-world applications in research, repositories, and international collaborations. Special focus is on Indigenous Knowledge and Cultural Heritage systems, where DOCiD ensures ethical governance, provenance tracking, and CARE-compliant stewardship. Participants will learn how DOCiD strengthens global interoperability, supports research infrastructures, and elevates Africa’s role in research innovation. The session features expert PID presentations and a live demonstration, providing practical insights into PID federation, containerization, and the transformation of identifiers into socially impactful, FAIR+CARE-compliant research objects.