MERAL Portal Myanmar Education, Research and Learning Portal

Overview and Founding

The Myanmar Education, Research and Learning Portal (MERAL) is a national open access research portal for Myanmar, launched in 2020. The project was initiated by the Department of Higher Education of the Myanmar Ministry of Education, the Rectors' Committee, and the National Education Policy Commission (NEPC), with technical and programmatic support from EIFL (Electronic Information for Libraries) and the National Institute of Informatics (NII) of Japan. A formal collaboration agreement was signed in Yangon on February 21, 2020. MERAL represents the first national open access research portal in the ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) region.

Collections and Holdings

By the end of 2024, MERAL hosted 8,758 research outputs from 36 universities, encompassing journal articles, theses and dissertations, conference papers, books, and book chapters. The portal aggregates content from institutional repositories at Myanmar universities established with EIFL support between 2015 and 2019, initially at five universities—University of Yangon, University of Mandalay, Yangon University of Economics, Yadanabon University, and Yezin Agricultural University—subsequently expanding to include dozens more institutions. In 2024, the portal recorded approximately 1.4 million views and 1.1 million downloads, demonstrating substantial global reach.

Technical Infrastructure

MERAL is built on WEKO3, an Invenio-based multi-tenancy repository platform developed by NII. The system provides an aggregated search and browsing interface across all member institutional repositories. The platform supports interoperability through the OAI-PMH protocol, enabling content discovery by international bibliographic systems.

Access and Usage

MERAL is freely accessible online at meral.edu.mm. All content is available in open access, consistent with the open access policies adopted by participating Myanmar universities.