Audiology education and practice vary considerably across countries. In North America and some parts of Europe it is well developed and considered as an autonomous profession. However, in most part of the world Audiology is still in its infancy and seen as a technical area that is part of otolaryngology, acoustics and so on.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are over 360 million people with disabling hearing loss. It is suggested that over 80% of this population live in low and middle-income countries where there is very little access to any audiological services. Hence, there is much work to be done in audiology to bridge this inequality in education and access to services.
Moreover, much can be learned even within the developed world comparing audiology practice across countries and taking inspirations from good working practices. We believe the first step in bridging this gap is to better understand the audiology education and practice and to connect audiologists across the world. Hence, this forum may play an important role in developing audiology globally.

GRAIN will utilize two methods to accomplish its goal: (1) develop an internet website that provides information about audiology across the globe; and (2) recruit key individuals who will volunteer to serve as resource editors and key contact people for the region/country. The website will provide up to date information about audiology education and practice in the regions across the world.
To make the work manageable the world will be further divided into five regions (i.e., Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania) and twenty-two sub-regions based on the United Nations classification.
The project will work with the following structure:

• Co-founders and Senior Editors (SE)
• Regional Resource Editors (RRE)
• Sub-Regional Resource Editors (SRRE)
• Sub-Regional Contributors (SRC)