Towards a Global Consensus on Open Science
Online Expert Meeting on “Open Science and Intellectual Property Rights”
venerdì 23 aprile 2021
12:00 -14:00 CET (Paris time)
L'UNESCO sta sviluppando uno strumento internazionale per definire gli standard della Open Science: la UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science
Riconoscendo la sfida politica in corso per trovare un equilibrio tra apertura della conoscenza e protezione dei diritti di proprietà intellettuale (DPI), l'UNESCO ha organizzato un incontro di esperti per discutere le relazioni tra DPI e Open Science, per presentare i diversi strumenti e meccanismi volti a conciliare la proprietà e la condivisione/apertura e per confrontarsi su politiche e strategie valide sia per la proprietà intellettuale che per l'Open Science.
L'incontro si terrà in inglese e francese sulla piattaforma online Zoom venerdì 23 aprile dalle 12:00 alle 14:00 CET (ora di Parigi).
A causa della capacità limitata per i webinar Zoom, si chiede gentilmente di seguire l'evento online:
- in inglese: webcast.unesco.org/live/room-12/en
- in francese: webcast.unesco.org/live/room-12/fr
Risorse utili
Background
Open Science is a global movement aiming to make science more accessible, democratic, transparent and beneficial for all. Open Science practices allow scientific information, data and outputs to be more widely accessible and more readily shared with the active engagement of all relevant stakeholders. By supporting equal opportunities for all and by strengthening the links between science and society, Open Science can be a true gamechanger in addressing the pressing planetary and socio-economic challenges and bridging the science, technology and innovation (STI) gaps between and within countries.
The question is no longer whether Open Science is happening, but rather how everyone can contribute and benefit from the transition. However, in the fragmented scientific and policy environment, a global understanding of the meaning, opportunities and challenges of Open Science is still missing. That is why at the 40th session of UNESCO General Conference, 193 Members States tasked the Organization with the development of an international standardsetting instrument on Open Science in the form of a UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science to be adopted by the General Conference at its 41st session.
The Recommendation is expected to define shared values and principles for Open Science and identify concrete measures on Open Access and Open Data, with proposals to bring society closer to science and commitments to facilitate the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge around the world.
Since December 2019, UNESCO has led a regionally balanced, multistakeholder, inclusive and transparent consultation process to gather inputs for the formulation of the draft text of the Recommendation, which is now available online and will be discussed among Member States at their intergovernmental expert meeting scheduled to take place in May 2021.
While reaffirming the potential of Open Science to improve the transparency, efficiency and relevance of the scientific enterprise, the Open Science consultations led by UNESCO in the past year pointed to some important issues that need to be addressed in building the global consensus on Open Science. One of these issues is the need for a clear understanding of the relationships between Open Science and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR).
As Open Science expands its impact, scientists are increasingly asked to share their research outcomes at different stages of the scientific process. At the same time, coupled with innovation and technology, science is expected to contribute to the national socio-economic benefits with a number of mechanisms, such as patents, copyrights and trade-marks, that can be used to assert Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) on scientific materials, methods, publications and data.
This apparent dichotomy requires clarifications regarding the relationships between Open Science and IPRs. For the advancement of science and its contribution to human progress and wellbeing, both Open Science and IPRs are necessary, beneficial and not mutually excluding. Ownership in itself is not an obstacle to openness and sharing. However, the way that scientific knowledge is licensed can indeed have important implications for Open Science.
Objectives of the virtual expert meeting
The current draft of the UNESCO Open Science Recommendation acknowledges ‘that the practice of Open Science, anchored in the values of collaboration and sharing, builds upon existing intellectual property systems and fosters an open approach that encourages the use of open licensing, adds to the public domain and makes use of flexibilities that exist in the intellectual property systems to amplify access to knowledge by everyone for the benefits of science and society and to promote opportunities for innovation and participation in the cocreation of knowledge. “
Establishing an optimal balance between IPR protection and openness is an ongoing policy challenge critical for the operationalization of Open Science worldwide. The IPR framework, if correctly defined from the onset, can be an important tool for Open Science to ensure, among others, that all contributors that share their scientific data, information and knowledge are adequately acknowledged and recognized.
In this context, the expert meeting will provide the opportunity to discuss the relationships between IPRs and Open Science; to present the different existing instruments and mechanisms that reconcile ownership and sharing/openness, and to exchange on balanced approaches between IPRs and Open Science.