On 5 May, the Prevention and Remediation of Insulin Multimorbidity in Europe (PRIME) project, which kicked off in January this year, held a webinar on Open Science. The webinar was hosted by Prof. Barbara Franke, who is leading the PRIME project, and was presented by Dr. Michela Bertero, the Open Science advisor to PRIME. Open Science is defined by the OECD as “making the primary outputs of publicly-funded research results – publications and research data – publicly accessible in digital format with no or minimal restriction”. Since 2017, all EU-funded research projects have participated in the Open Research Data (ORD) pilot, which aims to enable open access and reuse of project-associated research data. The PRIME webinar on Open Science was designed to demystify Open Science, defining key terms and explaining central concepts for PRIME researchers.
After an interactive Sli.Do survey session, Dr. Bertero presented a historical perspective on scientific dissemination, from the times of Galileo up to the present day. Outlining key definitions in Open Science, Dr. Bertero showed how Open Science is an umbrella term that encompasses multiple concepts, from Open Data and research integrity to Citizen Science and public engagement. She emphasised the importance of embedding Open Science in all stages of the research life cycle, from project planning, to data generation, publication and long-term storage. She highlighted some of the key challenges in Open Science, such as ethical and privacy concerns, and the lack of infrastructure and robust training. However, there are also many benefits to Open Science; research quality and efficiency is increased, and it provides an ideal opportunity for societal engagement with research. Dr. Bertero finished the session by describing three important Open Science concepts for PRIME: Open Access, Open Data, and Public Engagement. A recording of the webinar can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tx0lZF5g9I&feature=youtu.be
PRIME receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 847879.