Dr Paul Ayris responds to the UNESCO Open Science Recommendation

In November 2021 the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted a recommendation on open science.

It calls on member states to do three things:

• to establish regional and international funding mechanisms for open science;
• to ensure that all publicly funded research respects the principles and core values of open science, and;
• to invest in the infrastructure necessary to support open science.

It sets the first international open-science framework following a lot of work from organisations around the world including UCL.

UCL are champions of Open Science. We recognise that it is a vital tool in our ability to respond rapidly and effectively to the major challenges facing society such as the climate crisis and pandemics. We released a public statement in 2021, stating Covid-19 “is a wakeup call to the global research community to finally adopt open science/open scholarship as a set of principles and values which should guide all future activity”.

Dr Paul Ayris, Pro-Vice-Provost LCCOS (UCL Library, Culture, Collections, Open Science) and Kurt Deketelaere Secretary-General LERU and Professor of Law KU Leuven were asked for their joint response to the UNESCO Recommendation. They said:

"The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science presents an opportunity for a global move towards embracing open science principles and practice. For that reason alone, its appearance at the end of 2021 is to be welcomed. […] 
The UNESCO paper identifies 7 key areas for future action and proposes a monitoring scheme to measure progress. This is to be welcomed, but is it enough to deliver the wholesale cultural change that Open Science requires? Only time will tell.”