Open Science

The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as by its French acronym CERN, makes all of its results widely available through an open source digital library. Image credit: 2005-2016 CERN

Science is currently undergoing a revolution thanks to a new approach to the scientific process based on openness, inclusiveness and cooperation, known as Open Science. The EU’s Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, Carlos Moedas, aims to keep Europe at the vanguard of this change by promoting open access to scientific data and publications. This type of open collaboration will help research and innovation to generate the knowledge and solutions needed to tackle long-term societal challenges such as health, climate change or energy.

A 6.2-magnitude earthquake in Amatrice, Italy, in August 2016 killed nearly 300 people. Image credit - Amatrice Corso by Mario1952 is licensed under Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-2.5 and 2016 Amatrice earthquake by Leggi il Firenzepost is licensed under CC BY 3.0

environment | policy | open science

13 September 2018

Plate tectonics observatory to create seismic shift in earthquake research

We may never be able to entirely predict earthquakes such as those that hit central Italy in 2016, but we could better assess how they’re going to play out by joining up data from different scientific fields in a new Europe-wide observatory, say scientists.

Big data could not only benefit large companies, but also provide knowledge about a society’s health, for example. Image credit - Pxhere/876718, licensed under CC0

ict | open science

12 March 2018

Putting people at the heart of big data

Big data has given scientists – and companies – a treasure trove of new information for analysing, understanding and predicting human behaviour, but it’s also thrown up a raft of questions about privacy and ownership.

The European open science cloud will tie researchers together in a collaboration space. Credit — pxhere/ picture is in public domain

open science | policy | ict

30 November 2017

Nine things we now know about the European open science cloud

The idea of creating a shared online repository that would make all data from publicly funded research available for anyone to investigate and use, sounds like a laudable and ambitious plan. But how exactly would a European open science cloud (EOSC) work in practice? On 28 and 29 November, data experts, policymakers and scientists gathered in Brussels, Belgium, to discuss the way forward. Horizon went along and here are nine things we learned.

Dr Juan Bicarregui says it’s a long road to a full European open science cloud but some parts will be available for use very soon. Credit — Kevin Casey

interview | open science | science in society | ict

28 November 2017

Establishing a sense of direction is first step for open science cloud – Dr Juan Bicarregui

Changing the way science is done in Europe is the first job in setting up the European open science cloud, a huge shared data repository that will enable data from all publicly-funded research to be freely accessible, according to Dr Juan Bicarregui from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK.

Dr Panagiotis Zervas wants to make European agriculture data available to all researchers. Image credit — Dr Panagiotis Zervas

interview | agriculture | environment | open science

11 October 2017

Open data can secure our food supply – Dr Panagiotis Zervas

We live in an era where open data can pave the way to a more sustainable, secure and safe food system, according to Dr Panagiotis Zervas, senior project manager at Agroknow, a company that finds, connects and delivers agricultural and food information worldwide.

PhD student Urban Wünsch learned valuable lessons on a training trip aboard the Danish research ship Dana. Image credit: Urban Wünsch

environment | open science

20 February 2017

Sample labelling in the North Sea helping link up Europe’s research ships

Urban Wünsch never expected product labelling to be the hardest part of a seven-day voyage across the North Sea.

Using satellite data from the EU’s Sentinel missions along with other data is helping scientists figure out how to improve shipping safety. Copyright 2016 EUMETSAT

ict | open science | policy | space | environment

10 November 2016

New trends identified by computers that scour web, satellite data

Highly sophisticated computers are mining vast amounts of data from the web, digital maps and satellite imagery to pick out trends in areas like demographics, transport and the environment.

The percentage of the French population living in urban areas has gone from 62 % in 1960 to 80 % in 2015. 'Nasa photo satellite de Paris' by Nasa is in the public domain

social sciences | environment | open science

31 October 2016

Disused factories and satellites helping thwart urban sprawl

Europe’s big cities have been spreading their tentacles into surrounding villages and farmland for centuries. Now, satellite analysis is helping free up old parking lots, disused factories and abandoned roads to keep new developments inside the city limits.

Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Science, Research and Innovation, said the public is no longer willing to accept scientific advice on trust in a time when contradictory information is available at the touch of a button. Image courtesy of the European Union/ Jennifer Jacquemart, 2016

policy | open science

04 October 2016

Science advisers need to explain the evidence – EU research commissioner

People no longer take science advice on trust, and science advisers need to provide evidence for their recommendations, according to Carlos Moedas, European Commissioner for Science, Research and Innovation.

Text and data mining uses software that can sift through large quantities of material to find connections and contradictions that would otherwise be impossible to uncover. Image credit: Flickr/ Christiaan Colen

policy | ict | open science

14 September 2016

Copyright shift would put Europe ahead in ‘future of research’ data mining

In today’s digital age, it can feel as though we are drowning in a deluge of data, and the scientific field is no different. According to a 2014 study, one paper is published every 30 seconds, and more than 70 000 papers have been published on a single protein, a tumour suppressor called p53.