[CODATA-international] Open Science and ‘being scientific’: Mercè Crosas at the OECD Multi-Stakeholder Event, 23 April

Wed Apr 24 08:25:42 EDT 2024

At the OECD STI Multi-Stakeholder event ‘Shared challenges, transformative
actions’
<https://www.oecd-events.org/mm24/en/content/multistakeholder-dialogue>, on
23 April, CODATA President, Mercè Crosas
<https://codata.org/about-codata/message-from-president-merce-crosas/>, was
the first speaker on a panel with the theme ‘Making Open Science a reality
for the benefit of society’
<https://www.oecd-events.org/mm24/en/session/43801f37-ef8f-420d-a9c9-3d8c953a23ec>
.

Mercè started by arguing that Open Science can best be understood as ‘being
scientific’, doing science properly, according to longstanding scientific
principles but in the context of 21st century technologies.  Doing science
properly means that scientific claims must be verifiable.  This in turn
means that the data, methodologies, protocols and analytical code must be
available for scrutiny.  Furthermore, science builds on previous work,
stands on the shoulders of giants, and so the historical corpus of
scientific claims and knowledge must be open as a shared heritage and
resource of humankind.

Having set the scene in this way, Mercè went on to make four specific
points and calls for action.

   1. Open science must be global and inclusive.
   2. Seize the opportunity of AI and sensitive data.
   3. Engage wider society in Open Science.
   4. Make Open Science work through the science of science.

*Open science must be global and inclusive:* it is essential Open Science
works globally, including the global south, and that no-one is left behind.
In this context, international organisations, like ISC and CODATA, as well
as intergovernmental bodies and entities of the UN system, can play an
essential role in pursuing the goal of ensuring Open Science is inclusive
and benefits all.  An important challenge is to harmonise indicators and
standards for Open Science, while also ensuring that these are sensitive
and calibrated to the requirements of different disciplines and to a range
of economic contexts.

*Seize the opportunity of AI and sensitive data:* there is an apparent
tension between AI and sensitive data on the one hand and with Open Science
on the other.  It is essential to convert this tension into opportunities.
While being rigorous in ensuring the necessary protections in relation to
sensitive data, it is nevertheless important to maximise the way in which
these can be used safely for science. For sensitive data, the scientific
community can develop further privacy-preserving tools, such as
differential privacy or synthetic data, to enable analysis and release of
data without risk of re-identification. Similarly, it is vital to seize the
opportunity of AI.  Mercè argued in relation to AI that it is essential to
bring AI ‘into’ Open Science practices, and to ensure that there are high
quality, reliable training sets for science and that the algorithms and
processes in AI are open.

*Engage wider society in Open Science: *Open science does not just involve
academia, its vision is to maximise the societal benefit of science by
engaging and involving all of society in science. An important dimension is
access and use of governmental data, data from the private sector and from
civic organisations.

*Make Open Science work through the science of science: *It is important to
make better use of the scientific study of science, at an international
level, to understand how science functions.  Rigorous research about the
practices, barriers, and incentives in relation to Open Science is our best
guide to understanding how Open Science can work.

Other important themes of the panel and discussion included the need for
approaches to Open Science monitoring that provide an accurate
understanding of progress, including encompassing the diversity of
practices and requirements across different research disciplines, and
recognising the range of contexts, particularly in the global south.

Also recognised was the significance of the UNESCO Recommendation as the
first major, normative and standard setting instrument on Open Science,
endorsed by the vast majority of countries and representing an agreement of
the UNESCO member states.

Panel: ‘Making open science a reality for the benefit of society’, from
left to right:

   - Panel moderated by David Budtz Pedersen, professor of Science
   Communication, Aalborg University.
   - Mercè Crosas, Head, Computational Open Sciences, Barcelona
   Supercomputing Center and President, CODATA
   - Marin Dacos, National Open Science Coordinator, Ministry of Higher
   Education and Research, France
   - Iain Hrynaszkiewicz, Director, Open Research Solutions, PLOS
   - Natalia Manola, CEO, OpenAIRE AMKE
   - Ana Persic, Programme Specialist, UNESCO
   - John Schneider, Senior Advisor, Global Earthquake Model (GEM)
   Foundation
   - Panel introduced by Carthage Smith, OECD Global Science Forum

Thanks,
Asha

--
___________________________

*WorldFAIR Webinar: The WorldFAIR Webinar Series: Guidelines
and Recommendations from the Case Studies on Chemistry and Nanomaterials,
Monday 22 April - *further information and registration
<https://worldfair-project.eu/event/the-worldfair-webinar-series-guidelines-and-recommendations-from-the-case-studies-on-chemistry-and-nanomaterials/>

*Final WorldFAIR Project Events - *further information and registration
<https://worldfair-project.eu/events/>

*CODATA Data Ethics Working Group Policy Briefs Available
for Comment and Feedback
<https://codata.org/codata-data-ethics-working-group-policy-briefs-available-for-comment-and-feedback/>*

March 2023 publications
<https://codata.org/march-2024-publications-in-the-data-science-journal/> in
the CODATA Data Science Journal <https://datascience.codata.org/>

*Stay in touch with CODATA:*

Stay up to date with CODATA activities: join the CODATA International News
list
<http://lists.codata.org/mailman/listinfo/codata-international_lists.codata.org>

Looking for training and career opportunities in data science and data
stewardship?  Sign up to the CODATA early career community-run data
science training and careers list
<http://lists.codata.org/mailman/listinfo/data_science_training_lists.codata.org>

Follow us on social media! Twitter <https://twitter.com/CODATANews> -
Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/codata.org/> - LinkedIn
<https://www.linkedin.com/in/simon-hodson-b3711a11/> - Instagram
<https://www.instagram.com/codatainternational/>
___________________________

Asha Law | Program Assistant, CODATA | http://www.codata.org

E-Mail: asha at codata.org
Tel (Office): +33 1 45 25 04 96

CODATA (Committee on Data of the International Science Council), 5 rue
Auguste Vacquerie, 75016 Paris, FRANCE
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.codata.org/pipermail/codata-international_lists.codata.org/attachments/20240424/4c585aaf/attachment.html>