Open access: a way to find local experts to collaborate on CWB projects?

Here is one which is which open access intersects with planning and funding of the kinds of projects I’m guessing Chemists Withoout Borders would be interested in.

Groups like the United Nations and its subgroups are looking for collaboration in projects for developing countries, I understand. The idea is that the most successful projects will be those that draw on local expertise where the project will be implemented. Perhaps someone with more knowledge than I with working with these U.N. and related groups can provide more details?

Many academic publishers in developing countries are making some of all of their works freely available online. In fact, in my opinion this is an area where the developing countiries are ahead; the profits associated with academic publishing in the developed world are a barrier to change.

In practical terms, what this means is that it’s relatively easy to read the works of many researchers in developing countries. For example, the prestigious Indian Institute of Science has an e-print repository with over 2,000 articles produced by their researchers, which can be found at http://eprints.iisc.ernet.in/. Or, the African Journals Online site at http://www.ajol.info/ provides free abstracts to 211 African journals, and in some cases, one can read the entire journal online.

Does it make sense for CWB to read or search these kinds of works, to see if this approach might turn up a potential partner? If this approach is of interest, please let me know by adding a comment. There are many more resources, but this post is getting a bit long.