The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a catalyst to accelerate the implementation of open science and open data initiatives. Scientists in many countries have largely collaborated under the principle of ‘open science’– where knowledge, methods, data and evidence are made freely available and accessible to everyone. The global sharing of research data has boosted discovery and helped in the development of the COVID-19 vaccines, especially with the mapping of the coronavirus genome sequences.

Nevertheless, significant challenges need to be addressed in order to boost open science and open data across all scientific research fields and stimulate the uptake of research data and findings into policy and decision-making in OACPS member countries.

• How to assure that data generated through scientific research that address global challenges such as pandemics, climate change, biodiversity loss, are open, reliable and useful for policy decision-making?
• How to boost Open Science in OACPS member countries (opportunities, challenges and best practices)?

Several specialists will be discussing various aspects of Open Science and answer questions from online participants.

• Dr Ana Persic, UNESCO Programme Specialist for Science Policy and Partnership, coordinator of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science and the UNESCO Global Open Science Partnership.
• Joseph Mwelwa, PhD., founder and researcher at Joint Minds Consult, a research, education and training Institute in Gaborone, Botswana. Former Technical Advisory Board (TAB) Member of the African Open Science Platform (AOSP) and Author of many publications on Open Science in Africa.
• Gareth O’Neill, Principal consultant on Open Science at Technopolis Group and expert on the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC).

This event will be simultaneously translated into French and English.