UNESCO Regional Multi-Stakeholders’ Workshop on Open Science for Networked Societies

The workshop brought together a multi-stakeholder community from Asia and the Pacific with interests in open science, including member states representatives, representatives of key science technology and innovation institutions and the private sector. Participants shared their experience and discussed different perspectives and roles in the open science movement in Asia and the Pacific region. ISC ROAP was represented by Sufyan Aslam, who shared ROAP’s activities in open science and the work that has been done by CODATA with the African Open Science Platform landscape study.

Discussion themes of the workshop included the social and cultural changes necessary to promote open science, and the policies needed to steer changes in the right direction. In addition, participants discussed the technologies and IT infrastructures that would be required to enable open science in the Asia and the Pacific region in particular.

The outcomes of the workshop include a common vision and understanding on the meaning and scope of open science and the opportunities it brings to the region. The findings will be summarized as preliminary recommendations on the state of the art of open science in Asia Pacific, the opportunities and the risks and challenges and potential solutions. The summary of the discussion will feed into the process lead by UNESCO on building a global consensus on open science, including through a possible recommendation on open science.