African Open Science Platform WDS Meeting & Workshop
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The document summarizes the African Open Science Platform (AOSP), which aims to promote open data practices across Africa. It is funded by South Africa's Department of Science and Technology and managed by the Academy of Science of South Africa. The AOSP will focus on developing data policies, training, and identifying infrastructure needs to establish a networked platform for open data across the continent. Its goals are to increase collaboration, data sharing and reuse, and accelerate discovery. A preliminary survey found interest among African stakeholders in training, stewardship, and policy development around research data.
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African Open Science Platform WDS Meeting & Workshop
- 1. The African Open Science Platform (AOSP) WDS Workshop 12 April 2017, Grenoble, France
- 2. Agenda • About the African Open Science Platform (AOSP) • Rationale for AOSP • Accord on Open Data in a Big Data World • Focus areas of AOSP • Closing Remarks
- 3. About the African Open Science Platform (AOSP) • Funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) supported by 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)
- 4. About ICSU & CODATA • ICSU: International Council for Science – consists of 17 interdisciplinary bodies e.g. CODATA http://www.icsu.org/ • CODATA: Committee on Data for Science and Technology http://www.codata.org/ • Mission: Strengthen international science for the benefit of society by promoting improved scientific and technical data management and use.
- 5. About ASSAf (1) • Recognise scholarly achievement & excellence • Mobilise members in the service of society • Conduct systematic & evidence-based studies on issues of national importance (ASSAf OA Repository) • Promote the development of an indigenous system of South African research • Publish science-focused journals (SciELO SA) • Training in Open Journal Systems (OJS) • Criteria for high quality OA journals • Ambassador for Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) http://www.assaf.org.za
- 6. About ASSAf (2) • Develop productive partnerships with national, regional and international organisations to building capacity within the National System of Innovation (NSI) • Create diversified sources of funding for sustainable functioning and growth of a national academy • Communicate with relevant stakeholders • Association of African Universities (AAU) DATAD-R harvester of OA repositories • Evaluation instrument – harvesting IRs adhering to criteria for best practice (ISO 16363, Data Seal of Approval etc.) http://www.assaf.org.za
- 7. 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)
- 8. Key Stakeholders • IAP (Global Network of Science Academies) • 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) • Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) • African Research Councils (incl. DIRISA, funders) • African Universities • African Governments • NRENs (Internet Service Providers for Education) • Other
- 9. Accord: Open Data in a Big Data World • 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
- 10. 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.
- 11. Open Data, Open Science and the Research Lifecycle (Foster) https://www.rri-tools.eu/-/research-lifecycle-enhanced-by-an-open-science-by-default-workflow
- 12. Value of an African Platform (1) • 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
- 13. Value of an African Platform (2) • Identify needs e.g. skills development, infrastructure, policy formulation, etc. • Act as conduit for links with international open data and open science programs and standards • Cross-use data across disciplines/studies • Establish relationships between data • Manage Intellectual Property (IP)
- 14. Value of an African Platform (3) • 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
- 15. 5 Focus Areas (“Pillars”) • Promote development & adoption of data policies, principles, practices, standards • Determine infrastructure available • Address issues of incentives, best practice, benefits • Foster training & capacity building activities • Create an awareness, stimulate dialogue (frontiers)
- 16. Establish African Open Science 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. AOSP Preliminary Work Packages
- 17. AOSP Actions & Deliverables 2017 • SFSA Side Event & Panel Discussion (December 2016) • Visit http://africanopenscience.org.za/ • Advisory Council & Technical Advisory Board • Planning Phase Next (Year 1): • Expanding network, contacts, information on initiatives • Identify/train representatives on national level (each country actively producing data, with research interest) • Awareness - coordinate national workshops to introduce AOSP, open approaches – existing initiatives (conferences, w/s) • Desktop research to identify initiatives on national level & populate database • Engage with African stakeholders
- 18. Survey: Status of Openness in Africa • Preliminary findings from survey • Launched 1 November 2016; due date 31 January 2017 • 35 responses received
- 19. Focus of data initiatives 69% = training; 60% = stewardship; 54% = policy
- 20. Funding of data initiatives 51% = host institution; 34% = international grant; 20% = national grant
- 21. Opportunities for Collaboration • Capacitate on networks to populate database with open data initiatives, contacts • Work done in Francophone countries • Training initiatives • Addressing quality, standardization, interoperability issues • Roadmaps for data infrastructures, building on existing work • And many more ….
- 22. African Open Science Example
- 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. Acknowledgments • SA Dept. of Science & Technology • National Research Foundation (NRF) • ICSU & CODATA • All African partners
- 25. Thank you! Simon Hodson simon@codata.org Susan Veldsman susan@assaf.org.za Ina Smith ina@assaf.org.za
Editor's Notes
- The 2015 edition of Science International has developed an international accord on the values of open data in the emerging scientific culture of big data. The Accord recognises the need for an international framework of principles on “Open Data in a Big Data World” and proposes a comprehensive set of principles. These principles provide a guiding framework for an African data science capacity mobilization initiative spearheaded by ICSU and supported by other Science International partners. The initiative puts forward a comprehensive capacity mobilization plan, to be co-designed and delivered with key partners in Africa. It proposes the establishment of an African Open Data Platform, which will coordinate a series of actions at different levels of national science systems in the region.
- Research Lifecycle enhanced by an "Open Science by Default" Workflow
- SciGaia and other initiatives may offer useful platforms. Pilot project will focus on: 1; establishing Open Data / Science policies and national / regional data for a. 2: addressing issues of incenstives and rewward. 3: developing and rolling out training activities. 4: preparign roadmaps for national and regional data infrastructures. The ethos will consistently be to collaborate with exisitng initiatives and to examine how various infrastrcutures may fit into the ecosystem and help in the development of an African Open Science Platform.
- Homo naledi has made headlines around the world as one of the most significant fossil discoveries ever made. The unprecedented sample of fossils represents a rich record of an ancient population of human relatives, preserving nearly every part of the skeleton and spanning the lifespan. Many people around the world have been following the compelling story of discovery from the first days of the excavation. Using social media to tell the story As our cavers and scientists worked underground in challenging conditions, we kept the world up to date on Twitter, Facebook and with our Rising Star Expedition blog. Since those first days, the team has worked to build open access into every stage of the project. People can now share not only in the discovery but also in the process of understanding these ancient hominins. After nearly two years of work, on September 10 we published our first scientific papers on this discovery in the journal eLIFE. These original scientific descriptions of these fossils and their geological context are free for anyone in the world to download and share. In the week since we published these papers, the lead paper describing Homo naledi has been viewed more than 170,000 times – an extraordinary figure for any scientific paper. Our team has also moved quickly to make our data available to anyone in the world. Many of our fossils are now represented by research-quality 3D scans on MorphoSource. This online archive of data from skeletal and fossil discoveries, maintained by Duke University, provides a way to share large data sets both for scientific work and teaching. 3D technology used in classrooms Our team has generated virtual reams of scans that enable anyone to visualise these fossils, and even to use 3D printing technology to create their own physical copies. Right now, teachers and researchers all around the world are printing 3D models of the fossils of Homo naledi. Kristina Killgrove, a leader in applying 3D printing technology in her anthropology classroom, wrote: I downloaded the model as an .STL file…and then printed it using my trusty old MakerBot. It took 20 minutes, tops. Then I gave the model to a grad student who was heading in to teach the undergraduate lab in biological anthropology. Bam! Species-announcement-to-teaching-cast in under 12 hours. In the first week after the announcement, more than 1700 copies of these data sets have been downloaded, with makers proudly showing off their printed models on Facebook and Twitter. Find broke boundaries Paleoanthropology has often been caricatured as the lone pursuit of fossils by Indiana-Jones-like characters. But in the 21st century, making new discoveries in paleoanthropology – as in all other areas of science – requires collaboration across many disciplines. This project has involved a team of more than 60 scientists, each bringing their own distinctive expertise and data sets together to help solve the problems posed by these fossils. The project is led from South Africa and stretches across international boundaries to impact the world. At the event announcing Homo naledi at Maropeng, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of the Witwatersrand, Adam Habib, remarked on the importance of open access for building a 21st century science: We often talk about science as having no boundaries, but in our world scientific knowledge has become commodified, and too often, what should be the bequest of the world, the bequest of a common humanity, is locked up under paywalls that postgraduate students and researchers cannot get access to. So what we did when we made this discovery, was we put cameras in the cave, and we streamed it live from day one. We partnered with eLIFE, an open access journal, to make sure that the discovery was available to all of humanity. And what we did in that practice, is create the first elements of a common global academy….We are not simply going to be beneficiaries of open access, but we are going to be contributors to open access, to the knowledge of a common humanity. eLIFE editor Randy Schekman wrote about the benefits of open access publishing in 2013 when he won the Nobel Prize. His article, entitled How to break free from the stifling grip of luxury journals, emphasised that by limiting access to publishing, traditional journals create artificial scarcity to distort the process of scientific communication. Open access makes for better science. Public engagement The open access philosophy has driven our work on Homo naledi from the beginning. Instead of keeping these discoveries veiled behind locked doors, we have tried to bring them to the public in ways that will drive greater curiosity and engagement with science. We are proud to be able to share the original fossils with the public at Maropeng, where they will be on display until October 11. Not only the public benefits from scientific open access; science itself benefits. Showing the process of science in action, we create better tools for educators to equip students with the scientific method. As we train a new generation of scientists, we must give them the tools to build collaborations and work with massive data. By sharing data openly, we build a worldwide community of practice as we attempt to understand this and other future discoveries.