Strategic Session 4.2 – Open Science in Transport Research Around the World
Open science policy has developed progressively in the EU. It concerns all aspects of the research cycle, from scientific discovery and scientific review to research assessment, publishing and outreach; its cornerstone being open access to publications and research data. Since 2016, the European Commission has organised its open science policy according to eight ‘ambitions’:
- Open Data
- European Open Science Cloud (EOSC)
- New Generation Metrics
- Future of scholarly communication
- Rewards
- Research integrity
- Education and skills
- Citizen science
The objectives of the session were to discuss:
- The state of progresses of Open Science in Transport research in different regions of the World.
- The pathways to achieve it, and in particular, how international cooperation can help addressing potential barriers and pitfalls to Open Science in transport research.
Speakers and Pannelists
Introductory remarks:
- Dr Ezra Clark, Head of Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Section, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO (video recording)
- Patrick Mercier-Handisyde, Principal Administration, DG RDT, European Commission
Panelists:
- Prof. Maria Boile, Professor and Director MSc in Shipping at University of Piraeus, Coordinator of the BE OPEN project, Greece
- Prof. Dr.-Eng. Shinya Hanaoka, Professor, School of Environment and Society Department of Transdisciplinary Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech), Japan
- Neil Pedersen, Executive Director, Transportation Research Board of the National Academies, United States of America
- Chris Pringle, Executive Publisher – Transportation Journals, Elsevier, United Kingdom
- Dr António Bob Santos, Member of the Board of the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (FCT), Portugal
Moderator(s): Jacki Davis, Managing Director, Meade Davis Communications and Caroline Alméras, Secretary General, European Conference of Transport Research Institutes, Belgium
Chair: Caroline Alméras, ECTRI /ETRA
Co-chairs: Maria de Lurdes Antunes, LNEC and António Gomes Correia, UMinho
Rapporteur(s): Caroline Alméras, ECTRI
Key Messages
The challenges:
- How to keep the data / offer
- Cultural challenges; scientists’ attitudes, reservations to share R&D data
- Technical issues; interoperability;
- Privacy and Legal issues; data protection
- Effort (from the researcher) to prepare data for sharing
- Resistance from private industry to share
- Capacity building
The Strategies / Enablers:
- Policies for OS
- Cultural change is needed / on going
- Mandatory sharing of results from Nationally Funded projects
- Recognise / reward scientists that share data / review articles
- Open science access portal
- Demonstrate the benefits of open science
- Celebrate good examples of the breakthroughs from OS /
- Demonstrate benefits from sharing / multipliers effect for private industry
- Guidelines for data collection
- Digital infrastructure for OS
- Develop governance and business models
- Benefits of OS: bridge S&T gaps between countries; equal opportunities
An International cooperation:
- Unified format / terminology
- Standards and guidelines for interoperability
- Collaboration needed for global problems (decarbonisation)
- We should continue to discuss OS in major events
Priority for action:
- Communication and education / success stories
- Guidelines and standards
- Encourage scientist
- Skills
- Develop governance and business models