Focus on Open Science

Chapter XIV: Rome

Dr. Paul Ayris, University College London, UK

Dr Ayris is Pro-Vice- Provost (UCL Library Services). He joined UCL in 1997. 

Dr Ayris was the President of LIBER (Association of European Research Libraries) 2010-14 and Advisor to the LIBER Board until 2018. He is Co-Chair of the LERU (League of European Research Universities) INFO Community. He chairs the OAI Organizing Committee for the Cern-Unige Workshops on Innovations in Scholarly Communication. He is also the Chair of JISC Collections’ Content Strategy Group. On 1 August 2013, Dr Ayris became Chief Executive of UCL Press. He is a member of the Provost and President’s Senior Management Team in UCL.

He has a Ph.D. in Ecclesiastical History and publishes on English Reformation Studies.

Presentation:

Education as a pillar of Open Science

Education does not feature as one of the 8 pillars of Open Science, as defined by the European Commission, and this is a problem when considering the full range of activities which Open Science should embrace. There are also challenges in the UK in introducing the ‘Open’ concept to educational materials as these, unlike research outputs, do not fall under the Open Access requirements of the REF (Research Excellence Framework) or the TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework). UCL (University College London) has embraced the concept of research-based education and ‘Open’ approaches are helping to support this agenda. This paper will look at an initial UCL Scoping Study for Open Education (2016) and the current version of the UCL Open Education Roadmap (2017). The second part of the paper will look at the work of UCL Press, the UK’s first fully Open Access University Press, in delivering Open Educational outputs. It will start with the traditional textbook approach and then look at the development of the Press’s own textbook platform based on the BOOC (Books as Open Online Content). The paper will conclude by summarizing the challenges and benefits of Open Educational Resources as part of the Open Science agenda.

Dr. Tiberius Ignat, Scientific Knowledge Services

Tiberius Ignat is the Director of Scientific Knowledge Services, a company which specialises in helping the European libraries to embrace new technologies and ways of working. He runs in partnership with UCL Press and LIBER Europe a successful series of workshops - Focus On Open Science, now in its fourth year. After being a long-time individual member of LIBER, he became an LIBER Associate through his company. Tiberius is a member of European Citizen Science Association and Citizen Science Association (US) and a member of the Scientific Committee for OAI11, the CERN - UNIGE Workshop on Innovations in Scholarly Communication.

Tiberius Ignat has a personal interest in Open Science, particularly Citizen Science and the management of this cultural change. 

He has a PhD in Library and Information Science from the University of Bucharest.

Presentation

Citizen Science: Why Should We Bother?

There are two major concerns for scientists: the Nature and the Society. All involved make fundamental and applied efforts to discover knowledge and to build meaning on it. Scholars search for sustainable progress; beings are rubbing shoulders on planet Earth. We all need data and collective intelligence that is orders of magnitude larger than what scientists could do alone. The underuse of citizen science is a missed opportunity for science and society.

Take part in a cultural change and bring Science and Society together by developing research support services for citizen science. 

Prof. Roberto Barbera,  University of Catania

Prof. Roberto Barbera was born in Catania (Italy) in October 1963. He graduated in Physics "cum laude" at the University of Catania in 1986 and since 1990 he holds a Ph.D. in Physics from the same University. Since 2005 he is Associate Professor of Experimental Physics at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the Catania University and at the beginning of 2014 he got the National Scientific Qualification to act as Full Professor of Experimental Physics of Fundamental Interactions. Since his graduation his main research activity has been done in the domains of Experimental Nuclear and Particle Physics. He has been involved in many experiments in France, Russia, Sweden and United States to study nuclear matter properties in heavy ion collisions at intermediate energies. He is author of several book chapters, more than 250 scientific papers published on international journals, and more than 400 proceedings of international conferences (see his Google Scholar profile at: http://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=W5helEUAAAAJ). He is editor of the International Journal of Distributed Systems and Technologies and referee of Journal of Grid Computing, Future Generation Computer Systems, and BMC Medical Informatics. He is also a consultant of the European Commission and a reviewer of the European Science Foundation as well as of Ministries of Science and Technology of various countries in the world. 

Since 1997 he has been involved in CERN experiments and he is one of the physicists involved in the ALICE Experiment at LHC. Within ALICE he’s been the coordinator of the off-line software of the Inner Tracking System and member of the ALICE Off-line Board. Since late 1999 he is interested in Distributed Scientific Computing. He’s been member of the Technical Committee of TERENA (the Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association, www.terena.org), of the Executive Committee of the Italian Grid Infrastructure (the Italian National Grid Initiative, www.italiangrid.it) and of the Scientific & Technical Committee of Consortium GARR (the Italian National Research and Education Network, www.garr.it). At European level, he has been/he is involved with managerial duties in many FP6, FP7 and H2020 EU funded projects (agINFRA, CHAIN, CHAIN-REDS, DCH-RP, DECIDE, EarthServer, EELA, EELA-2, EGEE, EGEE-II, EGEE-III, EGI-Engage, EGI-InSpire, eI4Africa, EPIKH, EUChinaGRID, EUMEDGRID, EUMEDGRID-Support, GISELA, ICEAGE, INDICATE, INDIGO-DataCloud, etc.) in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America and he’s currently the Technical Coordinator of the Sci-GaIA project (www.sci-gaia.eu). Since 2004 he coordinates the international GILDA t-Infrastructure he created for training and dissemination (http://gilda.ct.infn.it) and that has been used in more than 500 training events in more than 60 countries worldwide. Since 2010 he oversees the design and the development of the Catania Science Gateway Framework (www.catania-science-gateways.it). He is also the manager of the GrIDP Identity Federation (http://gridp.garr.it) and he is strongly involved in the establishment of Certificate Authorities, Identity Federations and Open Access Digital Repositories for Open Science in various regions of the world.

Presentation

Open Science experiences across Europe and Africa

The main aim of the EU-funded Sci-GaIA project was to create a sustainable foundation of educational

material and procedures for the development and management of e-Infrastructure services, such as

Science Gateways, Open Access Repositories and Identity Federations, in Africa and beyond to energise

scientific endeavour and promote Open Science.

The project focused on several objectives that were articulated around concrete activities, which produced

relevant outcomes (follow the links listed below to get more information):

● Promote the uptake of Science Gateways and e-Infrastructures in Africa and beyond;

● Support new and already emerging Communities of Practice (CoPs);

● Strengthen and expand e-Infrastructure and Science Gateway related services;

● To train, disseminate, communicate and outreach.

One of the major outputs of the project was the e-Research Summer Hackfest model, which was conceived

as a hybrid event (halfway between a training course and a co-creation event) consisting of a brief and

intense introduction to Open Science services and technologies, followed by a collaborative project

development sprint.

The main objective of the hackfests, whose motto was “Bring your science to the web and the web to your

science”, was to integrate scientific use cases through a pervasive adoption of open web technologies and

standards and make them available to their end users through Science Gateways.

In this contribution I will (i) describe the hackfest model, (ii) report on the collaborations triggered across

Europe and Africa and (iii) outline how new communities of practice, including citizen science associations,

could benefit from it.

Dr. Giannis Tsakonas, LIBER

Giannis Tsakonas holds a BA in Librarianship from the Department of Archives and Library Sciences, Ionian University, Greece and a PhD in Information Science from the same Department. Currently, he works as Acting Director in the Library & Information Center, University of Patras, Greece. He is member of the Executive Board of LIBER (Ligue des Bibliothèques Européennes de Recherche - Association of European Research Libraries) and Chair of the Steering Committee on Innovative Scholarly Communication.  He also serves in the Board of Directors of the Consortium of Hellenic Academic Libraries.

Citizen Science as an act of innovation: librarians, scientists and citizens claiming knowledge structures

In its recommendations, the Open Science Policy Platform identified Citizen Science as one of the key streams to strengthen the dialogue between science and society. Citizen Science projects produce interesting results but, more than that, they challenge the shape of current scholarly processes. The OSPP has emphatically linked libraries with Citizen Science, as being “well placed” for a number of activities. The role they can have has been echoed in Open Science Roadmaps from LIBER and LERU. The potential that OSPP sees in libraries is a responsibility that libraries have to respond to. In this frame, the presentation will introduce the new working group of LIBER that is expected to start working after June 2019 and will give an outline of the key areas that research libraries will need to work. These areas will help us prepare a future where sustainable new structures of knowledge will help European citizens participate in scientific processes.

Dr. Fabio Giglioni, Professor of Administrative Law, Department of Political Science, Sapienza University of Rome

Fabio Giglioni (1971) is Associate Professor of Administrative Law at the Sapienza University of Rome. He has also got a qualification as Full Professor of Administrative Law. At this moment he is enrolled in Department of Political Sciences, where he has been teaching Administrative Law, Health Law, and Environmental Law.

He was Visiting Scholar at the Law School of the University of Hull from 2010 to 2011. He is also the Coordinator of the PhD course in Public, international and comparative Law and is also member of the

editorial boards of different law journal: Federalismi, Giustamm, Labsus, Munus, Nomos and Rivista trimestrale di Scienza dell'Amministrazione.

He coordinated an international research work about disability rehabilitation with three Tanzanian Universities (2014-2016).

Experience as consultant and researcher for public bodies of research (MIPA), Ministry (Welfare), National Office against the Racial and Ethnic Discrimination (UNAR), Commission of Guarantee for the Statistical Information (COGIS), Training Centres for the Public Administration (FORMEZ), Regions and Local Authorities. Participation in three National

Research Programmes-PRIN (the most important competitive public programme of research for the Italian Universities).

Author of the books (2008) L'accesso al mercato nei servizi di interesse generale and (2012) Governare per differenza. Metodi europei di coordinamento. Co-editor: together with Riccardo Acciai, of Pubblici poteri e laicità delle istituzioni (2008); Situation Analysis on Rehabilitation Policy: A Possible Way to the Implementation of the Disability Act of Tanzania (2016); together with Francesca Di Lascio, La rigenerazione di beni e spazi urbani. Contributo al diritto delle città (2017).

He issued more than one hundred essays on law journals and books regarding subjects of public service, economic regulation, performance of public service, information technology and public administration, guarantees of consumers, essential levels of health care, telecommunication, statistical information, laity, racial discrimination, administrative procedure, emergency powers, judiciary responsibility, transparency, university system, law of the cities and European banking union.

In 2009 the book L'accesso al mercato nei servizi di interesse generale was nominated among the 12 “Law Books of Year” by the “Club of Jourists”.

Knowledge at the service of the city communities and the other way around

The one-year aged Shared Community Laboratory of the Department of Political Sciences has the objective

of mapping, analyzing and offering perspectives of planning and supporting actions to the citizens for the

numerous experiences of care and regeneration of the city of Rome, to the active processes of democratic

citizenship aimed at the use and the transformation of urban spaces. At the same time, those citizens have

an active role in the Laboratory for the students.

Dr. Fabio Attore, Director of the Botanic Garden of Rome

Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome

Associate Professor of Botany at Sapienza University. He is scientific coordinator of several International Cooperation projects aimed at promoting the sustainable development of local communities and the conservation of biodiversity and natural resources. Areas of interventions included Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Papua New Guinea, Albania, Yemen, Ecuador, Peru, Dominican Republic.

Botanical gardens and citizen science: an (as yet) under-exploited potential  

Participation of citizens to research activities probably began with a “Christmas bird count” in 1900. Citizen science activities can aim at several purposes: long term monitoring, environmental education, preservation of traditional ecological knowledge, etc. Citizen scientists can collect data, support scientists in the field, involve decision makers, plan new research activities, etc. While citizen science may have critical issues, especially as far as data quality is concerned, it has several relevant advantages as well (reduced costs, production of “big data”, awareness raising, etc.). However, especially in Europe, there is still an under-exploited potential for botanical gardens to act as drivers for citizen science initiatives.

Dr. Ciro Franco

Head of Research Support Office, Sapienza University of Rome

Currently Head of Research Support Office at Sapienza University, providing research services and training for researchers on European projects.

Since 2007 expert and Vice Chair, on behalf of the European Commission, within FP7 and Horizon 2020 (in particular MSCA, Blue Growth, Inclusive Societies and SWAFS).

2012-2014: Head of Technology Transfer Office at Politecnico of Milano.

2014–2016: in charge of the Directorate “Promotion and valorisation of Research” at OGS (National Institute of Oceanography and Experimental Geophysics).

2015-2017: member of the Commission aimed at assessing the Third Mission of Italian Universities and Public Research Centres, on behalf of ANVUR, the Italian Agency for the Evaluation of University and Research System.

Citizen Science within the context of Horizon 2020  

Citizen science, as an important dimension of Open Science, represents a fundamental driver for encouraging citizens and other stakeholders to participate in all stages of research and innovation cycle.

This is clear priority which has been devoted from the European Commission within Horizon 2020 huge amounts of funds and a specific social challenge, titled as "Science With and For Society" (SWAFS).

In view of the publication of 2020 SWAFS calls, it is important to get prepared by focusing on the right approach for structuring possibly a successful proposal.

Ghislain Onestas, Solution Expert, Ex Librisniversity of Rome

Ghislain Onestas works with Ex Libris’ team of Solution Experts advising customers on aspects of Ex Libris solutions and how they can be used to solve problems of librarianship around the areas of teaching, learning and research. As a subject matter expert, Ghislain works closely with customers to define their issues and identify the optimal resolution to them. Prior to joining Ex Libris, Ghislain worked for Clarivate Analytics as Customer Education Specialist.

Putting the library at the heart of research

Many in the academia recognize the need for a better, more integrated approach for managing research assets throughout the research cycle – a systematic data management approach that will eliminate duplication of effort, reduce the burden on individual stakeholders and – above all – would support the institutional goal of increasing the impact of research output.

Academic libraries are increasing their involvement in supporting research output and improving research data management, and in many institutions are already bringing coherence to the way that these are managed. In this session, we will discuss the potential role that libraries can play in driving this transition, by leveraging their expertise in data curation, resource management, and content dissemination, and the infrastructure needed for supporting these processes. We will aim to inspire a conversation around the need for a new, comprehensive approach to research data services. The session will also look at a possible solution via a new library–led initiative being launched (Ex Libris Esploro) that brings together a number of universities and Ex Libris in order to develop a new approach to increase visibility, impact and compliance of research outputs and data while serving the multiple stakeholders.

Simon Porter, Director of Innovation at Digital Science

Simon Porter is Director of Innovation at Digital Science. He spent 15 years at the University of Melbourne in roles spanning the Library, Research Administration, and Information Technology. With his understanding of how information on research is collected, Simon has forged a career transforming university practices in how data about research is used, both from administrative and eResearch perspectives. In addition to making key contributions to research information, visualization and discovery within the university, Simon is well known for his advocacy of research profiling systems and their ability to create new opportunities for researchers. Simon established and ran the annual Australasian conference on research profiling. In 2012, Simon was the program chair of the annual VIVO conference.

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6151-8423

From Information Stewardship to Data Science Fluency - The changing expectations of Research Information Citizens

Abstract