Open Science Pathways
in the Earth, Space and Life Sciences

The half day event focusing on Open Science and Reproducibility was co-organised by SciLifeLab Data Centre and the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

The SciLifeLab-Data Centre and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) delivered a joint event on May 9th, 2022 titled “Open Science Pathways in the Earth, Space, and Life Sciences” focusing on a Open science themes including: 

• The Path to Open, Reproducible Science – Stories from the Research Community 
• How to Open Science – Practical Use Cases, Lessons Learned from the Research Community 
• Open Science from a Broader Context – What Open Science Means from the National and International Perspectives

The opening remarks were delivered by Johan Rung where he introduced the SciLifeLab, its history and mission, our current activities as well as the services we offer at the Data Centre. 

Shelley Stall, opened our first session with remarks about AGU’s long history of commitment to Open Science, particularly focusing on AGUs (data) policy, efforts and commitment to ensuring that relevant scientific evidence is processed, shared and used ethically. In addition, she highlighted the need for the application of FAIR and its impact on the future of research. Shelley  was followed by Sara El-Gebali who introduced the essential factors to making Open and FAIR practices a reality, highlighting that meeting the challenges presented by FAIR implementation will require dedicated efforts, policy decisions, fit-for-purpose incentives, and a multidisciplinary approach which must be supported across the wider research community.

In the second session, Fredrik Ronquist spoke of the data related efforts in the field of biodiversity on a national and international scale, drawing particular attention to data sources, data quantity including the supporting work by organizations, communities and infrastructures. David Diez presented an applied use case from his lab and demonstrated the importance of generating an open and reproducible bioinformatics pipeline. This in turn helps the wider scientific community in understanding the effects of genomic erosion aiding the conservation efforts of wild organisms. In addition, Yuhan Rao presented on his experiences in the field, lessons learned and how we all have a role (authors, reviewers, editors, managers, developers, readers, etc) to improve data/software access through community developed guidelines.

The third and final session emphasized the need for a multi stakeholder approach to Open Science and Reproducibility. Daniel Bangert described how the Irish National Agenda for Open Research (NORF) was developed through a consultative approach to build community consensus and address the challenge of changing culture. Following the example from a national perspective, Christine Kirkpatrick provided excellent examples from both national and international communities that support accelerated adoption of Open Science practices stemming from topic/field specific driven efforts. 

Chelle Gentemann provided a shared vision for Open Science inspiring a heightened sense of urgency prompted by global issues such as climate change. She described how NASA’s newly launched program TOPS will accelerate and boost the progression towards Open Science practices by ensuring the inclusion of diverse voices in the conversations. 

Finally, the closing remarks were delivered by Shelly Stall & Chris Erdmann, summarizing the highpoints and take away messages of the day. 

We were very fortunate to have a group of knowledgeable and inspiring speakers come together to share their thoughts, experiences, and research. On behalf of the event hosts and organizers we hope you enjoy the recordings and materials provided from this event. 

We look forward to welcoming you to our future events!