The G7 has announced a five-point action plan and new working group to facilitate its support of Open Science.
Group members have committed to work together to uphold and protect openness, reciprocity and cooperation as shared values and to protect the principles that underpin effective international collaboration that is as open as possible and as secure as necessary.
The new G7 Research Compact states, “We support continued collaboration on Open Science through continuation of the existing G7 Working Group and establishing a new Working Group on the Security and Integrity of the Research Ecosystem.”
It describes five actions upon which the G7 nations have committed to work together to:
● Maintain policies, legal frameworks and programmes which promote research collaboration – among our scientists, research institutions and innovative businesses;
● Promote the efficient processing and sharing of research data as openly as possible and as securely as necessary across the G7 and beyond, by improving the availability, sustainability, usability and interoperability of research data, technologies, infrastructure and services. We will work together to address the administrative, legal, and regulatory barriers that hinder our scientific cooperation and slow our ability to respond to crises. A specific case study focused on data sharing in an emergency will increase our resilience by working through barriers;
● Explore incentives, including enhancements to research assessment that foster recognition and reward collaboration across all disciplines and topics to drive a culture of rapid sharing of knowledge, data, software, code and other research resources. Investigate how open science practices help achieve increasingly robust, reliable and impactful research outcomes;
● As we continue to see the benefits of international collaboration in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we have a shared aspiration for more flexible and agile research collaborations facilitating rapid, interdisciplinary, and evidence-based responses to future systemic crises and natural disasters across G7 nations and beyond. We will explore how existing and potential new mechanisms and initiatives can support risk reduction, prevention and response to these events;
● The G7 Working Group on the Security and Integrity of the Research Ecosystem will develop a common set of principles which, when implemented, will help to protect the research and innovation ecosystem across the G7 from risks to open and reciprocal research collaboration, and preserve the principles of open science and research freedom and independence. The Group will develop proposals for a virtual academy and toolkit, bringing together and developing the skills and experience of researchers, innovators, business leaders, and policy makers from any nation to develop a shared understanding of research integrity and security. This will embed the behaviours, systems and processes needed to protect valuable knowledge and technology assets where necessary, allowing international collaboration to continue with confidence.