Dialogue, Digitization, Participation: Making Open Science a Reality in Sweden

Event on Open Science arranged by the Swedish non-profit membership organisation Science & Public (Vetenskap & Allmänhet, VA), October 12^th, Stockholm, Sweden
The theme for this conference was Open Science, what Open Science means in practice and how we will make Open Science a reality in Sweden. Background for the event was the Competitiveness Council conclusions on the transition towards an Open Science system, adopted by the EU Member States in May 2016. They imply that open science needs to be considered as “when” and “how” rather than “if”.

According to Celina Ramjoué, head of Sector on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Data at the Digital Science Unit, European Commission, and keynote at the conference, the benefits of Open Science concerns science as well as business and society at large. Ramjoué concluded that Sweden is doing all the right things regarding Open Science, but encouraged all stakeholders in Sweden to engage more on the European level. “It will take some time and effort, but it’s truly worth it”, Ramjoué ensured.

Four parts included in Open Science were introduced and discussed during the day.

Beate Eellend, Programme Manager Openaccess.se at the National Library of Sweden presented the context and benefits of Open Access to scientific publications, Christopher Kullenberg, researcher at Gothenburg University introduced the many important aspects of Open Data, Kjell Bolmgren, researcher at Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences talked about the opportunities of Citizen Science and Maria Lindholm, Director of Research at Science & Public presented RRI and how to use these tools for a more responsible research and innovation.
Nearly 200 participants took part in the event and discussed in sub-groups the possibilities and challenges of these four parts of Open Science. The dialogues were followed up by panel discussions with representatives from multiple groups of stakeholders, e.g. funders, science journalists, vice-chancellors, researchers, students and not-profit organizations. Also, all participants took part in an interactive voting, where the most important possibilities and challenges were selected.

Karin Röding, State Secretary to the Minister for Higher Education and Research, Helene Hellmark Knutsson, concluded the event by presenting the Swedish Governments approach towards Open Science. She stressed that open access to scientific publications and research data is most important for democracy in society and pointed out that the responsibility for the transformation to open science must be shared among all stakeholders within the research community. However, she emphasized, there is also a need for political support in the process.

The event was recorded and can be downloaded here (in Swedish): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUNnddKvZ9o