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Pub­lic con­sulta­tion on Sci­ence 2.0

17.07.2014
Research­ers are using digit­al tools to get thou­sands of people par­ti­cip­at­ing in research, for example by ask­ing them to report if they catch flu in order to mon­it­or out­breaks and pre­dict pos­sible epi­dem­ics. Sci­ent­ists are being more open too: shar­ing their find­ings online at an early stage, com­par­ing and debat­ing their work to make it bet­ter. Increas­ingly, sci­entif­ic pub­lic­a­tions are avail­able online for free. By some estim­ates, 90 per­cent of all avail­able data in the world has been gen­er­ated in the past two years, and sci­entif­ic data out­put is grow­ing at a rate of 30 per­cent per year. The con­sulta­tion will look at aware­ness of and par­ti­cip­a­tion in these trends, as well as get views on the oppor­tun­it­ies cre­ated by ​‘Sci­ence 2.0’ to strengthen the com­pet­it­ive­ness of European sci­ence and research. The dead­line for responses is 30 Septem­ber 2014. European Research, Innov­a­tion and Sci­ence Com­mis­sion­er Máire Geoghegan-Quinn said: ​“Sci­ence 2.0 is revolu­tion­ising the way we do sci­ence – from ana­lys­ing and shar­ing data and pub­lic­a­tions to cooper­at­ing across the globe. It is also allow­ing cit­izens to join in the search for new know­ledge. The whole sci­entif­ic pro­cess is becom­ing more trans­par­ent and effi­cient, but this also poses ques­tions about integ­rity and qual­ity – so we want to hear people’s views on how we can guar­an­tee that Sci­ence 2.0 devel­ops in a way that is pos­it­ive for Europe.” Neel­ie Kroes, Com­mis­sion Vice-Pres­id­ent respons­ible for the Digit­al Agenda, said: ​“Now digit­al tech­no­logy and tools offer the chance for a new trans­form­a­tion: improv­ing research and innov­a­tion and mak­ing them more rel­ev­ant for cit­izens and soci­ety. We are mov­ing towards open, digit­al sci­ence – a trend that is gradu­al but unstop­pable. That trend, and the desire to embrace it, comes, not from politi­cians, but from the sci­entif­ic and aca­dem­ic com­munit­ies them­selves. And I am determ­ined to sup­port it.” The European Com­mis­sion has already integ­rated some aspects of ​‘Sci­ence 2.0’ into its policy. In par­tic­u­lar, open access to sci­entif­ic pub­lic­a­tions is man­dat­ory for research under Hori­zon 2020, the new EU research and innov­a­tion pro­gramme. A Pilot on Open Research Data has also been launched. Through its research pro­grammes, the EU also funds a num­ber of cit­izen sci­ence pro­jects and sup­ports some of the e‑infrastructure that makes Sci­ence 2.0 pos­sible. The con­sulta­tion, as well as back­ground inform­a­tion, can be found at the European Com­mis­sion web­site: Your voice in Europe http://ec.europa.eu/research/science‑2.0.

Back­ground

​‘Sci­ence 2.0’ is rap­idly gain­ing momentum glob­ally as a res­ult of digit­al tech­no­lo­gies and in response to cur­rent weak­nesses in sci­ence, includ­ing the slow and costly sci­entif­ic pub­lic­a­tion pro­cess, cri­ti­cism of the peer review sys­tem and the chal­lenge of repro­du­cing research res­ults due to lack of re-useable and rep­lic­able data. This is tak­ing place in the con­text of major, inter­con­nec­ted trends: 
  • a sig­ni­fic­ant increase in sci­entif­ic pro­duc­tion and a trend towards open access to sci­entif­ic inform­a­tion and open research col­lab­or­a­tion (remote col­lab­or­a­tion of scientists);
  • steady increase in the num­ber of act­ors in sci­ence (today, the world has the largest num­ber of sci­ent­ists ever) and great­er involve­ment of cit­izens in research (in the research itself or as fun­ders or agenda setters);
  • new ways of doing sci­ence thanks to the avail­ab­il­ity of large-scale data­sets (90% of all the data in the world has been gen­er­ated over the last two years) and con­stant growth in com­pu­ta­tion­al power.
Source: European Commission
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