The document summarizes the African Open Science Platform (AOSP). It discusses that AOSP aims to coordinate open science activities across Africa to increase collaboration, data sharing and reuse. It is focused on four key areas: establishing an open data forum, funding research infrastructure initiatives, funding transdisciplinary research projects, and developing open data policies. The ultimate goals are to accelerate discovery through open data, attract more funding, and contribute to global knowledge. AOSP is funded by the National Research Foundation of South Africa and managed by the Academy of Science of South Africa.

1. African Open Science Platform
Presented by Susan Veldsman
7 August 2017

2. Agenda
• What is Open Science?
• Rationale for an African Open Science Platform
• About the Platform
• Focus Areas
• Next steps

3. Open Science Defined
“Open Science is the practice of science in such a
way that others can collaborate and contribute,
where research data, lab notes and other
research processes are freely available, under
terms that enable reuse, redistribution and
reproduction of the research and its
underlying data and methods.” - FOSTER Project,
funded by the European Commission

4. Open Data, Open Science &
Research Lifecycle (Foster)

5. “Several open science activities are underway
across Africa, but a great deal will be gained if, in
the context of developing inter-regional links,
these activities were to be coordinated and
developed through such a coordinating
initiative.” - CODATA

6. Open Data Repositories (re3data - 16)

7. Accord on Open Data in a
Big Data World
• Open Science is fundamental
to 21st Century discovery and
needs to be supported
• Values of open data in
emerging scientific culture of
big data
• Need for an international
framework
• Proposes comprehensive set
of principles
• Provides framework & plan for
African data science capacity
mobilization initiative
• Proposes African Platform
Call to Endorse

8. Value of an African Platform
• Collective view of Open Science activities
• Create awareness & showcase African research
• Contribute to global knowledgebase
• Increase return on investment (re-use)
• Identify lack of data/opportunities/gaps

9. • Identify needs e.g. skills development,
infrastructure, policy formulation, etc.
• Act as conduit for links with international open
data and open science programmes and
standards
• Cross-use data across disciplines/studies
• Establish relationships between data
• Manage Intellectual Property (IP)

10. • Make data more discoverable/visible
(metadata)
• Encourage collaboration between scientific &
private sectors, citizens
• Participate in collective problem-solving
• Allow verification of existing data, predict
trends
• Accelerate discovery – speed is everything (e.g.
outbreaks)
• Attract funders

11. About AOSP
• Funded by the National Research Foundation
(NRF) (SA Dept. of Science and Technology)
• Directed by CODATA (ICSU)
• Managed by Academy of Science of South
Africa (ASSAf)
• Through ASSAf hosting ICSU Regional Office for
Africa (ICSU ROA)

12. AOSP Governance
• Advisory Council (Chair: Prof Khotso Mokhele)
• Terms of Reference
• Technical Advisory Board
• Terms of Reference
• Platform Office (ASSAf) & ICSU/CODATA Office
• CODATA Executive Director (Dr Simon Hodson)
• 2x Senior Project Managers (Ina Smith & Susan
Veldsman)
• Project plan
• Capacitate on network
• Reports to funder
• Workshops, meetings, presentations
• 1x Junior Project Officer (ASSAf)

13. Key Stakeholders
• Global Network of Science Academies (IAP)
• International Council for Science (ICSU)
• Regional Office for Africa (ROA)
• Committee on Data for Science and Technology
(CODATA)
• World Data System (WDS)
• The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS)
• Research Data Alliance (RDA)
• Association of African Universities (AAU)

14. • Network of African Science Academies (NASAC)
• African Research Councils (incl. DIRISA, funders)
• African Universities
• African Governments
• NRENs (Internet Service Providers for
Education)
• Other

15. 4 Focus Areas
Establish African Open Data Forum / Platform
Funded Research Data Infrastructure
Initiatives
Funded, co-designed transdisciplinary
research projects
Co-design African Open Data
Policies
Develop Incentives Frameworks
Develop Research Data Science Training
African Research Data Infrastructure
Roadmap
Activities require
low funding for
coordination,
secondment,
contributions in
kind and
evaluation.
Activities require higher
investment for
coordination, co-design
implemenatation and
evaluation.

16. Policy Framework
• Uganda Draft Open Data Policy
• White Paper on Open Research in South Africa
• National Research Foundation (NRF)
• White Paper on Open Research Data Strategy
in Botswana
• Kenya Open Science Policy
• OECD Principles & Guidelines for Access to
Research Data from Public Funding

17. Infrastructure Framework
• RDM, Repositories (cloud), Internet
Connectivity
• NRENs
• Centres for High Performance Computing
• SADC Cyberinfrastructure Framework
• SKA telescope: Explore five untold secrets of
the cosmos. These include how the very first
stars and galaxies formed just after the Big
Bang.

18. Challenges re Infrastructure

20. Capacity Building Framework
• Research Data Management Planning: DMPRoadmap
• Repositories: Figshare, re3data, Zenodo, DSpace,
Dataverse
• Command Line Interpretation: UNIX Shell
• Software Development: GitHub, Mercurial
• Data Organisation: Spreadsheets
• Data Cleaning: OpenRefine
• Data Management & Databases: SQL, Hadoop
• Data Analysis & Visualisation (incl. programming): R,
Python, ggplot2, MATLAB, R Markdown

21. Incentives Framework
• Mechanisms that acknowledge publication of
datasets and to promote data sharing

22. Actions & Deliverables Year 1
• AOSP Side Event to the SFSA 2016 - Launch
• AOSP Workshop AAU 2017 - Policy
• Madagascar Meeting & Workshop 2017 –
Policy & Capacity Building
• Botswana National Open Data Open Science
Forum 2017 - Policy
• UbuntunetConnect Ethiopian Workshops 2017
– Policy & Infrastructure
• Database & Networks – Surveys etc

23. Closing Remarks
• Collaborate & learn – strength in diversity
• Data the new “gold” – predict trends (Prof
Joseph Wafula)
• Trusted data managed in trusted way
• Exploit data for the benefit of society (Min
Naledi Pandor)
• Tell the African story, in an African way

24. Stay in Touch!
• susan@assaf.org.za
• Web: http://africanopenscience.org.za/
• Mailing list
• Facebook
• Twitter: #aosp_official