Ukrainian
Sergio Andreozzi explains the idea behind EGI’s vision for 2020
The new EGI vision statement for an ‘Open Science Commons’ reads:
Researchers from all disciplines have easy and open access to the innovative digital services, data, knowledge and expertise they need for performing collaborative excellent research leading to a smarter economy, a wiser society and a sustainable environment.
What does this mean in practice?
Open Science refers to the opening of knowledge creation towards all stakeholders, including society in general. Historically, open science started in the 17th Century with the institution of science as a profession and with the birth of a publishing system that ensured recognition for original ideas and motivated scientists to disclose research results. Now, open science, sometimes called Science 2.0, is driven by the digitalisation of the research process and by the globalisation of the scientific communities.
A Commons is a resource management principle by which a resource is shared within a community in a way that allows non-discriminatory access, while ensuring adequate controls to avoid congestion or depletion when the capacity is limited. An example is the Wikimedia Commons, an online database created to manage images and media files for Wikipedia in all languages. In the e-Infrastructures sector, the term has been initially associated to the communication infrastructure and later expanded as the e-Infrastructures Commons, which aims to harmonise network, high-performance computing, grid, cloud, and data services.
EGI proposes to recognise that e-Infrastructures are a component of the whole scientific process that should be managed as a commons.
The three pillars of the Open Science Commons
The Open Science Commons is built on:
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e-Infrastructure Commons, an idea developed by the e-IRG to encompass integrated services and interoperable infrastructures across Europe and the world.
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Open Data Commons, where observations, results and applications can be made available for scientific research and for anyone to use and reuse.
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Knowledge Commons, in which communities have shared ownership of knowledge and co-create solutions with access to expertise and the technical support they need to exploit state-of-the-art digital services.
In the context of the Open Science Commons, research results become a shared community resource (i.e., a commons). For this to happen, researchers need to change their own behaviours and support services that simplify the sharing of research results, their discovery and reuse. This is because open access to innovative services for large scale computing and scientific data will only have maximum impact if combined with open access to knowledge and expertise.
The new Open Science Commons vision will be enabled by the richness of the EGI ecosystem, where different actors deliver value to the processes involved into research and innovation. Resource centres will provide reliable, secure and high-quality computing and data services that are the engines of digital science. Technology providers will build software solutions to expand what is possible. NGIs will support e-Infrastructures at national level and engage with the national researchers. And EGI.eu will coordinate the integration of e-Infrastructures at EU level and beyond. Put together, this vision will allow researchers to create the knowledge needed for growth in the environment, in the economy and in society.
