12. Oct. 2018

The monthly newsletter focuses on OpenScience as a systemic change for research activities, also in the WBC

In a nutshell, Open Science is transparent and accessible knowledge that is shared and developed through collaborative networks (Vicente-Sáez & Martínez-Fuentes 2018). The idea captures a systemic change to the way science and research have been carried out for the last fifty years: shifting from the standard practices of publishing research results in scientific publications towards sharing and using all available knowledge at an earlier stage in the research process. Open Science encompasses a variety of practices, usually including areas like open access to publications, open research data, open source software/tools, open workflows, citizen science, open educational resources, and alternative methods for research evaluation including open peer review (Pontika et al., 2015).  It is enabled by digital technologies, and driven by the enormous growth of data, the globalisation and enlargement of the scientific community including new actors (e.g. citizen science), and the need to address societal challenges. In the short term, Open Science may offer more transparency, openness, inclusiveness and networked collaboration. In the long term, it may make science more efficient, reliable and responsive to the grand challenges of our times as well as foster co-creation and Open Innovation.

In the Western Balkans investments for public research systems are low and cooperation between universities and industry generally limited to a very small number of large businesses. In such a framework Open Science and Open Access have the potential to open access to the research results to be used for innovation in the smaller and medium sized companies, as well as for wider public. Open Science would support the circulation of knowledge and encourage collaboration across different disciplines and technology domains. Open Access policies would promote competitiveness and therefore the importance of quality and impact of research results which are currently still low in the region. Open Science is thus currently seen as a concrete opportunity to reshape Western Balkans education and transfer of scientific and research knowledge.

The Newsletter dedicated to Open Science was released today, 12th October. If you did not get it, you can anyway find all related information online at https://wbc-rti.info/.

You are kindly invited to register for getting further issues!

Related Articles:

• Project: Information Platform | Western Balkan Countries | Research, Technology, Innovation

Tags: Balkan, open access, open science, policy recommendations