Open Science – Review, disseminate & assess

From 5-6th October, guests from all over the world came together to discuss innovative methods for Open Science at the OpenUP final conference in Brussels. For the last 2 years, the EU-funded project investigated emerging communication mechanisms that go beyond academic communities. The themes “review, disseminate & assess” set the agenda for all talks and sessions about the project’s results.

“Science isn’t finished until it is communicated” (Mark Walport, 2013)

Professor Sophie Scott kicked off the conference with a keynote about science communication. She won the UCL Provost’s Award for Public Engagement. In 2015, she held a TED Talk, and last year she conducted a Christmas Lecture for the Royal Institution. What is very impressive indeed, is not reflected in general researcher evaluation schemes. Scott mentioned, that the community rather tends to question the research’s quality. Nevertheless, she is convinced that public engagement makes science better and is highly rewarding, because one will notice when the audience understands the work. Citations and collaborations will increase.

CC BY OpenUP project

Awareness & skills are needed

Building on this, OpenUP presented the state-of-play of innovative dissemination, peer review and impact measurement (altmetrics). Dissemination becomes more “participatory and multi-directional”, but at the same time there is a lack of “awareness, skills, time, resources, evidence, policies and incentives” (Tony Ross-Hellauer). These findings link closely to FIT4RRI activities, which aim at improving the training offer for RRI and Open Science. All new training resources will be available on the FOSTER portal.

Learn and communicate!

The conference guests looked forward to the marketplace. Certainly, it was a unique chance to learn more about OpenUP’s outcomes. Also, FIT4RRI and other Open Science projects presented their activities and results (you can have a look at our FIT4RRI poster). The marketplace was very lively and interactive; a great opportunity to learn and communicate.

OpenUP launched the OpenUP Hub to support academic stakeholders by providing a platform for information and exchange. Check out the Hub to read the project’s recommendations and to learn more about emerging communication mechanisms.