NUI Galway will host Ireland’s first ‘Open Science Week’ with the aim of showcasing the importance of research and education that is accessible to everyone. The inaugural event will take place from April 8-12.
Open Science Week 2019 will bring together researchers, academics, educators, policymakers and members of the public to highlight and showcase what open science is and how it can be achieved, and to work together towards creating knowledge that is open and accessible to everyone.
Events taking place throughout this innovative initiative will target several elements of Open Science, including Open Data, Open Access, Open Education and Citizen Science.
Practices that are collaborative and transparent
Open Science is a global movement towards research and educational practices that are collaborative and transparent. The aim of open science is to make research and educational resources such as publications, data, research outputs and teaching and learning resources publicly available as early as possible, as well as actively encouraging participation in the research process by the general public and co-creation of knowledge.
Throughout Europe, it is estimated that €250 billion is expended annually on publicly funded research - bringing its own scrutiny, pressure and urgency.
Open Science Week 2019 will address some big questions and problems that demand nothing short of a paradigm shift in how research is conducted: How do we make sure our research is properly reproducible? How do we eliminate the rare but deadly publication-pressure induced fraud that threatens to taint legitimate findings with the stain of fake news? Are there more effective alternatives to academic peer review? What should the role of universities be in a society that is increasingly networked and open?
Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh, president of NUI Galway, said: “I am delighted to see Ireland’s first Open Science Week being led by colleagues at NUI Galway.
"Knowledge and scholarship are important drivers of our society and our economy. Investment in education and research - which generates such knowledge - is harvested by increased public access to and engagement with knowledge outputs – publications, data and a greater sense of relationship between the citizen and knowledge.
"Open access and the inaugural Open Science Week 2019 represents the evident social dividend from investment in education and research and I commend colleagues at NUI Galway, and beyond, for highlighting this area of societal importance.”
Engagement from different disciplines
Dr Elaine Toomey, Health Behaviour Change Research Group (School of Psychology) and Open Science Week committee member at NUI Galway, said: “It’s really exciting to see such a wide range of activities and events taking place across campus for Open Science Week, and in particular to see such great engagement from different disciplines within the university.
"We’re also really hoping to get as many people from outside the university involved as possible, as this is an issue that affects everyone, whether or not they realise it.”
On Monday, April 8, Professor Lokesh Joshi, vice-president of research at NUI Galway, will officially launch Open Science Week at NUI Galway’s Hardiman Building. It will be followed by the screening of the movie ‘Paywall: the Business of Scholarship’ and a Q&A.
'Paywall' focuses on the need for open access to research and science and questions the rationale behind the $25.2 billion a year that flows into for-profit academic publishers. (
https://paywallthemovie.com/); Wikipedia edit-a-thon on Women in Science highlights how women in science are under-represented on Wikipedia, with just 18 per cent of biographies for women.
How researchers might best create, collect, use and share data
Tuesday, April 9 events include: Data Conversation - Talking Historical Data which aims to bring data practitioners of all kinds together to talk about how researchers might best create, collect, use and share data in the context of Open Science; Open Educational Resources (OER) Policy Lab is the first ever OER Policy Lab that aims to collect global OER policies with a special focus on Europe, identify new functionalities needed for the OER Policy Registry and develop a global network of OER Policy experts to facilitate global mainstreaming of Open Education.
On Wednesday, April 10, the 10th Annual Open Educational Resources (OER) Conference 2019 will be held for the first time in Ireland. Keynote speakers include: Dr Kate Bowles (University of Wollongong); Dr Su-ming Khoo (NUI Galway); Taskeen Adam (University of Cambridge); Caroline Kuhn (Bath Spa University); and Judith Pete (Catholic University of Eastern Africa). This year’s conference theme is: ‘Recentering Open: Critical and Global Perspectives’, focusing on critical approaches to open education and how Open Education can improve educational access, effectiveness, and equality.
On the April 11-12, an Open Science in Irish Health Research: two-day introductory workshop for Early Career Researchers will take place. This two-day workshop funded by the Irish Health Research Board intends to introduce ‘all things Open Science’ for early career researchers in health.
For registration and full details visit:
www.nuigalway.ie/openscienceweek and follow #OpenSciGalway on Twitter.