This document presents a draft strategy and makes the scientific case for the African Open Science Platform (AOSP)

The African Open Science Platform's mission is to...

... put African scientists at the cutting edge of contemporary, data-intensive science as a fundamental resource for a modern society. Its building blocks are:

• a federated hardware, communications and software infrastructure, including policies and enabling practices, to support Open Science in the digital era;
• a network of excellence in Open Science that supports scientists & other societal actors in accumulating and
• using modern data resources to maximise scientific, social and economic benefit.

These objectives will be realised through seven related strands of activity:

Strand 0: Register & portal for African & related international data collections & services

Strand 1: A federated network of computational facilities and services

Strand 2: Software tools & advice on policies & practices of research data management

Strand 3: A Data Science Institute at the cutting edge of data analytics and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Strand 4: Priority application programmes: e.g. cities, disease, biosphere, agriculture

Strand 5: A Network for Education & Skills in data & information

Strand 6: A Network for Open Science Access and Dialogue

The document also outlines the proposed governance, membership and management structure of the Platform, the approach to initial funding and the milestones in building up to the launch.

Open Science is a vital enabler in...

... maintaining the rigour and reliability of science; in creatively integrating diverse data resources to address complex modern challenges; in open innovation and in engaging with other societal actors as knowledge partners in tackling shared problems.

The case for Open Science is based on the profound implications for society and for science, of the digital revolution and of the storm of data that it has unleashed and of the pervasive and novel means of communication that it has enabled. No state should fail to recognise this potential or to adapt their national intellectual infrastructure in exploiting benefits and minimising risks. 

Moreover, Open Science is fundamental to realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals. National science systems worldwide are struggling to adapt to this new paradigm. The alternatives are to do so or risk stagnating in a scientific backwater, isolated from creative streams of social, cultural and economic opportunity.

Africa should adapt and capitalise on the opportunities, but in its own way, and as a leader not a follower, with broader, more societally-engaged priorities. It should seize the challenge with boldness and resolution.

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Related:

Registries for Open Data Repositories, Institutional Repositories, Policies, Journals

• RESEARCH4LIFE PARTNERS COMMIT TO FREE AND LOW COST ACCESS & TRAINING THROUGH 2025
• AIMS.FAO.ORG free online courses on Access to Scientific Information Resources in Agriculture for Low-Income Countries and Open Data Management in Agriculture and Nutrition 
• Open Data Management in Agriculture and Nutrition course (Background & related courses)
• Implement effective Open Data & Keep it alive with Open Data TOOLKIT
• Free Open Science training courses
• Priorities for the next few years for the AGROVOC multilingual thesaurus published as Linked Open Data  
• Interview with André Laperrière, Executive Director of the Global Open Data Initiative for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) : About tackling current and future challenges in food production, for example in Africa... and how can OPEN DATA help in food production
• Open Data in Developing Economies: Toward Building an Evidence Base on What Works and How
• Embedding Open Data practice: Developing indicators on the institutionalization of open data practice in two African governments
• Supporting sustainable development with Data
• Open Data to Support the Sustainable Development Goals
• EU The economic benefits of Data
• Read papers presented at the ELPUB2018 conference and benefit from the many messages and work done globally on the Open Access extended to Open Science and Open Data
• The role of data in AI business models (ODI report)
• Open Data Institute (ODI) Summit 2018 – London, 20 November 2018

• ODI (May 2018). ODI strategy: 2018–2022. London, United Kingdom: Open Data Institute (ODI). Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-4.0 license

• Sasse, Tom, Amanda Smith, Ellen Broad, Jeni Tennison, Peter Wells, and Ulrich Atz (2017). Recommendations for Open Data portals: from setup to sustainability. Brussels, Belgium: European Union. Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.​

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