Registration and Networking

Opening Notes

Teodoro Valente, Deputy Rector for Research, Innovation and Technology Transfer, Sapienza University

Education as a Pillar of Open Science

Education does not feature as one of the 8 pillars of Open Science, as defined by the European Commission, and this is a problem when considering the full range of activities which Open Science should embrace. There are also challenges in the UK in introducing the ‘Open’ concept to educational materials as these, unlike research outputs, do not fall under the Open Access requirements of the REF (Research Excellence Framework) or the TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework). UCL (University College London) has embraced the concept of research-based education and ‘Open’ approaches are helping to support this agenda. This paper will look at an initial UCL Scoping Study for Open Education (2016) and the current version of the UCL Open Education Roadmap (2017). The second part of the paper will look at the work of UCL Press, the UK’s first fully Open Access University Press, in delivering Open Educational outputs. It will start with the traditional textbook approach and then look at the development of the Press’s own textbook platform based on the BOOC (Books as Open Online Content). The paper will conclude by summarizing the challenges and benefits of Open Educational Resources as part of the Open Science agenda.

Sponsor Talk: Putting the Library at the Heart of Research

Many in the academia recognize the need for a better, more integrated approach for managing research assets throughout the research cycle – a systematic data management approach that will eliminate duplication of effort, reduce the burden on individual stakeholders and – above all – would support the institutional goal of increasing the impact of research output. Academic libraries are increasing their involvement in supporting research output and improving research data management, and in many institutions are already bringing coherence to the way that these are managed. In this session, we will discuss the potential role that libraries can play in driving this transition, by leveraging their expertise in data curation, resource management, and content dissemination, and the infrastructure needed for supporting these processes. We will aim to inspire a conversation around the need for a new, comprehensive approach to research data services. The session will also look at a possible solution via a new library–led initiative being launched (Ex Libris Esploro) that brings together a number of universities and Ex Libris in order to develop a new approach to increase visibility, impact and compliance of research outputs and data while serving the multiple stakeholders.

Citizen Science: Why Should We Bother?

There are two major concerns for scientists: the Nature and the Society. All involved make fundamental and applied efforts to discover knowledge and to build meaning on it. Scholars search for sustainable progress; beings are rubbing shoulders on planet Earth. We all need data and collective intelligence that is orders of magnitude larger than what scientists could do alone. The underuse of citizen science is a missed opportunity for science and society. Take part in a cultural change and bring Science and Society together by developing research support services for citizen science.

Coffee Break

Open Science Experiences across Europe and Africa

The main aim of the EU-funded Sci-GaIA project was to create a sustainable foundation of educational material and procedures for the development and management of e-Infrastructure services, such as Science Gateways, Open Access Repositories and Identity Federations, in Africa and beyond to energise scientific endeavour and promote Open Science. The project focused on several objectives that were articulated around concrete activities, which produced relevant outcomes (follow the links listed below to get more information): ● Promote the uptake of Science Gateways and e-Infrastructures in Africa and beyond; ● Support new and already emerging Communities of Practice (CoPs); ● Strengthen and expand e-Infrastructure and Science Gateway related services; ● To train, disseminate, communicate and outreach. One of the major outputs of the project was the e-Research Summer Hackfest model, which was conceived as a hybrid event (halfway between a training course and a co-creation event) consisting of a brief and intense introduction to Open Science services and technologies, followed by a collaborative project development sprint. The main objective of the hackfests, whose motto was “Bring your science to the web and the web to your science”, was to integrate scientific use cases through a pervasive adoption of open web technologies and standards and make them available to their end users through Science Gateways. In this contribution I will (i) describe the hackfest model, (ii) report on the collaborations triggered across Europe and Africa and (iii) outline how new communities of practice, including citizen science associations, could benefit from it.

Botanical gardens and citizen science: an (as yet) under-exploited potential

Participation of citizens to research activities probably began with a “Christmas bird count” in 1900. Citizen science activities can aim at several purposes: long term monitoring, environmental education, preservation of traditional ecological knowledge, etc. Citizen scientists can collect data, support scientists in the field, involve decision makers, plan new research activities, etc. While citizen science may have critical issues, especially as far as data quality is concerned, it has several relevant advantages as well (reduced costs, production of “big data”, awareness raising, etc.). However, especially in Europe, there is still an under-exploited potential for botanical gardens to act as drivers for citizen science initiatives.

Citizen Science within the context of Horizon 2020

by Ciro Franco

Sponsor Talk: From Information Stewardship to Data Science Fluency - The changing expectations of Research Information Citizens

Lunch Break

Citizen Science as a way to bring young students closer to Open Science via OpenAIRE

by Ilaria Fava

Knowledge at the service of the city communities and the other way around

The one-year aged Shared Community Laboratory of the Department of Political Sciences has the objective of mapping, analyzing and offering perspectives of planning and supporting actions to the citizens for the numerous experiences of care and regeneration of the city of Rome, to the active processes of democratic citizenship aimed at the use and the transformation of urban spaces. At the same time, those citizens have an active role in the Laboratory for the students.

Citizen Science as an act of innovation: librarians, scientists and citizens claiming knowledge structures

In its recommendations, the Open Science Policy Platform identified Citizen Science as one of the key streams to strengthen the dialogue between science and society. Citizen Science projects produce interesting results but, more than that, they challenge the shape of current scholarly processes. The OSPP has emphatically linked libraries with Citizen Science, as being “well placed” for a number of activities. The role they can have has been echoed in Open Science Roadmaps from LIBER and LERU. The potential that OSPP sees in libraries is a responsibility that libraries have to respond to. In this frame, the presentation will introduce the new working group of LIBER that is expected to start working after June 2019 and will give an outline of the key areas that research libraries will need to work. These areas will help us prepare a future where sustainable new structures of knowledge will help European citizens participate in scientific processes.

Panel Discussion

Closing Notes