Open Science offers the opportunity to support more ethical, shared and accessible research in support of the Sustainable Development Goals.
The French Institute of Research for Sustanable Development (IRD), which has been distributing its publications for 30 years in open access, has integrated open science into one of the six strategic orientations, with the desire to extend the culture of open access to all scientific productions of publications. data through protocols and source codes . To strengthen and coordinate this effort, to transform research practices on a lasting basis throughout the life cycle of projects and within our partnership arrangements, the Institute now has a Roadmap for open and shared science.
Its ambition is part of the National Open Science Plan 2018-2021, of which Frédérique Vidal, the Minister in charge of Research, presented the results on July 3 at CEREGE in the presence of Philippe Charvis, Deputy Director for Science of IRD. This first national plan was a strong commitment in favor of greater openness to scientific research results, open access to publications and – as much as possible – to research data, which the IRD is expanding with its roadmap to the challenges of science-society dialogue and to beneficiaries in the South .
In doing so, IRD is also fully in line with the ambitions of the new National Open Science Plan 2021-2024, which Frédérique Vidal made public on July 6 and which aims in particular “to contribute to the democratization of access to knowledge in order to bring science closer to society” .
Strategy aimed at beneficiaries in the South
A lever for deploying the science of sustainability, particularly among scientific communities in the South, the Roadmap for an open and shared science has been drawn up over the last few months in connection with all the structures of the Institute and its partners, under the coordination of the IRD’s Open Science Mission, which will ensure its operational implementation, transversal by nature.
Its objective is to make IRD productions easy to find, accessible, interoperable and reusable, which is a sine qua non for the advancement of scientific knowledge and its reuse by research communities and socio-economic actors. It is a factor of innovation in the South.
Levers to support changes in practices
To do this, the Institute’s open science roadmap has been broken down into 21 objectives organized around five major themes:
- Open and disseminate data, publications, software and protocols resulting from IRD research
The opening of research results in all its forms must be done in partnership and for the benefit of all, scientists, economic actors and civil society. - Developing open science with the countries of the South
The IRD must be both an actor and a facilitator in the implementation of open science in the South, with respect for its partners, their constraints and the specific context of each project, for each partnership. To do this, the IRD is part of an approach that aims to raise awareness among the scientific community in developing countries, to negotiate the methods of integrating open science, to build capacities and, finally, to contribute to the development of data infrastructures in this part of the world. - Encourage the sharing of research with all actors in society
Science must be open to all socio-economic actors, in an ethical manner and at all stages of knowledge production. The IRD is committed to building its research in dialogue with society, from its programming and during its implementation, to contribute to economic and social innovations within the framework of an equitable partnership. - Developing the culture and skills of open science within the IRD planet
The development of open science involves acculturation and training the members of the IRD planet, access to numerous educational resources on its e-learning platform. - Include open science in the institutional framework of the IRD
Open science is a new paradigm. It involves new practices and requires new skills that the IRD must put in place over the long term, for all disciplines. This requires defining principles and formulating concrete prescriptions for their implementation, proposing levers to support changes in practices, and being present on the national and international scene to influence policies and associated means.
Nearly 80 operational actions
These major objectives have been operationalized in nearly 80 actions, which will give rise to an action plan each year.
They will be carried out in line with the various objectives of the IRD’s scientific trajectory and more particularly those related to the deployment of the science of sustainability and the Institute’s environmental roadmap.
This post has first been published by IRD.