About the Open Science platform

The Open Science platform is initiated by professor Kim Daasbjerg (Dept. of Chemistry and iNANO) and has been established with funds from the Danish Industry Foundation. It combines basic research with industrial innovation by sharing data freely and patent-free through databases and live science streaming, ensuring that industry and the universities get greater benefit from each other’s knowledge and technology. Input from researchers worldwide are expected to accelerate and qualify the project results – and allow more people to use and re-use the generated knowledge. Nobody can patent the knowledge that has been uploaded. On the other hand, the research can be used to develop new products that can subsequently be patented.

Besides researchers from Danish universities, 20 small and medium-sized enterprises, including flagship companies such as ECCO, LEGO, VELUX, Vestas, Grundfos, SP Group and Terma are already participating in the initiative.

Remember that ”the Open Science idea in this form is not entrenched at Aarhus University, it is a movement”, like prof. Kim Daasbjerg says. Prof. Daasbjerg predicts ”that Open Science can have the same impact on the scientific ecosystem associated with basic research that Internet streaming has had on the music and film industry”. The first Open Science platform is called SPOMAN (Smart Polymer Materials and Nano-Composites) (http://spoman-os.org/), and other research environments are free to imitate the initiative and to copy and paste the model.¹⁾ 

Press coverage by national and international online news platforms

After Science & Technology (ST) at Aarhus University wrote about the interesting new initiative¹⁾, renowned media, nationally as well as internationally, have spotted the exciting venture and have reported of it as well.

The German portal for life science and pharma, bionity.com²⁾, was the first to reproduce the article by ST followed by a recount by the American based Tech Transfer Centrals³⁾, which strives to be a one-stop destination supplying information, news, products, and services for technology transfer and intellectual property professionals.

The Copenhagen Post⁴⁾, a weekly newspaper providing Danish news in English both nationally and internationally, also retold the story and the Indian website and entrepreneur platform, Passion Connect linked to the article in The Copenhagen Post.

The renowned and London based Times Higher Education (THE) became known for publishing the annual Times Higher Education–QS World University Rankings. Times Higher Education reports of the Open Science Platform and has interviewed both Dr. Adam Stoten, chief operating officer at Oxford University Innovation and Dr. Bruno Reynolds, a senior consultant at Oxentia (Oxford’s management consultancy company) about the AU initiative.⁵⁾

Altinget is an award winning independent online newspaper focusing on Danish politics and the online newspaper has one of the largest editorial offices at Christiansborg (the Danish government building). Lately Altinget has talked to Dean Niels Christian Nielsen (ST at Aarhus University), who says upon asked about the purpose of the initiative: ”we want as strong business contacts as possible for our researchers, students and facilities and as such open up more for business. It is one of the university's important tasks. As it is today, there are companies that consider universities to be restrictive and that it is difficult to establish cooperation in the development of knowledge-based products”. Altinget also reports on the fact that most recently, the British Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, has contacted Dr. Marie Louise Conradsen (scientific coordinator) and prof. Kim Daasbjerg in order to learn from AU's experiences. By April next year, the UK government presents its proposal for a major reform of the research sector. The British Research Minister has previously said to Times Higher Education that she is praising the open science philosophy and that it will be part of the country's future strategy.⁶⁾

In another article, Altinget⁷⁾ interviews Dr. Bjarke Jørgensen, Head of Research at Newtec Engineering A/S, which is one of the companies participating in the Open Science project. As Dr. Jørgensen says about the Open Science project: ”I can not get my arms down. The only negative is that it is not widespread enough. We can not wait to bring many more researchers along”. To Altinget Dr. Jørgensen also says "Open science provides some completely different possibilities. It removes the barrier that there often is in the cooperation. When open, there is also a wider knowledge. More can contribute, so we can let many small streams make one big river”.⁷⁾

Sources:

1. Original article by Science &Technology, AU: http://scitech.au.dk/en/about-science-and-technology/current-affairs/news/show/artikel/aarhus-universitet-og-industrien-aabner-patentfri-legeplads/
2. Bionity: http://www.bionity.com/en/news/164329/a-patent-free-playground.html
3. Tech Transfer Central: http://techtransfercentral.com/2017/08/01/aarhus-university-goes-patent-free-in-bid-to-open-up-industry-collaborations/
4. The Copenhagen Post: http://cphpost.dk/news/new-danish-platform-created-to-share-scientific-data-free-of-charge.html
5. Times Higher Education: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/danes-step-away-patenting-favour-open-science#survey-answer
6. Altinget: http://www.altinget.dk/forskning/artikel/i-odense-kan-de-ikke-faa-armene-ned (only in Danish)
7. Altinget: http://www.altinget.dk/forskning/artikel/au-projekt-skal-vise-vejen-for-open-science?ref=newsletter&refid=24780&SNSubscribed=true&utm_source=nyhedsbrev&utm_medium=e-mail&utm_campaign=forskning (only in Danish)