enhance the range of resources available through country portals by forging partnerships with international programs and providing negotiation support to regional partners to secure sustainable access to licensed scientific resources. Dissemination The MVSL Program aims to promote the global dissemination of scientific output from the region by providing support and offering technologies to ensure that dissertations, nationally published journals, reports, and monographs can be found and read by colleagues across the globe. Through the adoption of open-access protocols, the MVSL Program aims to expand the global visibility and impact of new knowledge originating from the Maghreb. Collaboration The MVSL Program will combine tools for access and dissemination with tools for colleague discovery and collaboration across institutions and national borders. If the researcher permits it, the MVSL site will suggest potential new collaborators based on research interests and search requests. The MVSL Program will support new and existing collaborations through a web-based toolset that is integrated into each MVSL country site. Countries Although the MVSL Program is initially working with Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, the Program will expand to include Mauritania, and, as circumstances and funding permit, Libya. Algeria Morocco Tunisia Mauritania Mauritanian researchers established a Center for Research in Renewable Energy at the University of Nouakchott and received an international award for malaria research. Science and engineering students in Mauritania account for more than 1/3 of university degree program enrollments. Libya In Libya, scientists have transformed the research base to focus on addressing national and regional challenges in areas such water resources, renewable energy, and medicine Open Access The MVSL Open portal is a free gateway for everyone in the Maghreb to access to a wide range of research publications and databases usually available only within universities. The topics covered range from law, history, and music to business planning, finance, patent searching, and the latest scientific discoveries. MVSL Open uses leading-edge searching and indexing software to provide easy access to the full text of current research from all over the world. There is no cost to use the MVSL Open site, and there are no membership or affiliation restrictions External links Maghreb Virtual Science Library Algeria Portal Morocco Portal Tunisia Portal Open Access Portal Digital libraries