Digital science in Horizon 2020

Transcription

1 Digital science in Horizon 2020 March 2013 Table of Contents Executive Summary Vision for Digital science Proposed approach to Digital science in Horizon Introduction Scope of Digital science... 2 New methods for research... 2 New access to research results and processes... 2 Collaboration in research... 3 Interaction with society... 3 Summary of Digital science aspects Potential and challenges for Digital science... 5 Potential for Digital science... 5 Challenges for Digital science Digital science in CONNECT... 8 Objects of enquiry... 8 Stakeholders... 9 Areas of impacts Cross-cutting nature of Digital science Summary of Digital science work landscape Conclusions Broad objectives for Digital science activities Proposed approach to Digital science in Horizon Annex I : Digital science review of definitions Annex II : Digital science unit priorities for 2013

2 Digital science in H2020 Executive Summary Executive Summary Vision for Digital science Digital science means a radical transformation of the nature of science and innovation due to the integration of ICT in the research process and the internet culture of openness and sharing. It is more open, more global and collaborative, more creative, and closer to society. It relies on the use of e-infrastructures, i.e. ICT-based services and tools for data- and computing-intensive research in virtual and collaborative environments. Digital science makes it possible not only to perform research more efficiently but to transform science. However, there are specific policy challenges relating to harnessing its full potential: changing traditional research systems and cultures to better appreciate openness and collaboration; ensuring widest possible take-up by research organisations and different disciplines; addressing possible risks and negative effects. In DG CONNECT, Digital science development is being promoted by digital science coordination, e-infrastructures development and various research actions, with collaboration links to other Commission services. Through policy activities and research programme funding, DG CONNECT: i) supports developing digital science tools and practices; ii) supports digital science capacity in EU27, both in terms of e-infrastructures and human capital; and iii) provides leadership and guidance through policies for taking up Digital science practices and for ensuring that the related risks and challenges are addressed. By its nature, digital science cuts across different activities in DG CONNECT and beyond, and must be accompanied by active dialogue with all relevant stakeholders, in order to achieve improved impacts on science, society, policy and innovation. In the context of Horizon 2020, DG CONNECT can have a specific contribution to developing European capacity for future research by: i) ensuring that Horizon 2020 Work programmes develop tools and models (Objects of enquiry) that support development of Digital science; ii) encouraging Digital science in all Horizon2020 projects when applicable; iii) effectively sharing project outcomes and best practices for the research actors and policy makers.

3 Digital science in H2020 Executive Summary Proposed approach to Digital science in Horizon 2020 In order to support Digital science effectively and in a timely manner for Europe, it must be integrated into Horizon The Horizon 2020 programme should i) address the 'Objects of enquiry' recognised for advancing Digital science; and ii) mainstream Digital science through integrating it into the rules and guidelines for the Horizon 2020 projects. Addressing the Objects of enquiry DG CONNECT must ensure that the recognised Objects of enquiry for Digital science are addressed in the respective parts of the Horizon 2020 Work programmes as well as in the overall approach. Concretely, several CONNECT Work programmes will contribute to developing Digital science on different levels: Technologies and components for data gathering and networked systems Models, methods and tools for future research and information processing Platforms and infrastructures which can support collaborative research Innovations for Digital science, developing understanding of the related challenges The relevant work programme definitions should be open to proposals with specific contributions to Digital science, and the results should be effectively disseminated and shared among other projects and research stakeholders. In addition to developing these specific contributions, all CONNECT projects should apply Digital science as their working methods when relevant, and thereby contribute to developing best practices, uptake and skills for Digital science, and to engaging different stakeholders, including industry. Mainstreaming Digital science in Horizon 2020 In order to support the research actors to become aware of and benefit from Digital science approaches, all Horizon 2020 projects should be systematically encouraged to embrace Digital science, when appropriate. This mainstreaming of Digital science should be implemented through following operational means: 1) All grant agreements should include: A mandatory clause on Open Access to publications, and an obligation to ensure that all publications produced are linked to the OpenAire portal. Commitment to appropriate digital research data management, with considerations for its preservation, sharing and dissemination. Option for a special clause on Open Data Pilot. 2) The project proposals for all calls should be required to include in their submission: Where datasets are being produced, a Data Management outline, to describe initial planning for managing, storing and sharing digital research data and related metadata. Where appropriate, a description of the impact of the project on Digital science in the specific field, including the development of scientific open collaboration, futureoriented scientific skills, science-society interaction and uptake of e-infrastructures. 3) In the project implementation, the PO would ensure where appropriate: Awareness of the consortium of Digital science and its potential benefits. Inclusion of the digital research data management plan in the project deliverables. Monitoring and reporting on Digital science aspects of the project, such as: collaboration with the broader research community; citizen participation in research; dissemination to society; educational activities; OA publications; OA datasets, open code and algorithms made available by the project; and the (re)use of these by others.

4 Digital science in H March Introduction Internet technologies, large-scale computing and storage resources, data search/retrieval tools, mobile devices, social media, and their high uptake among different groups of people have profoundly changed the ways knowledge is created, communicated and how it can be further deployed. They have made possible a radical transformation of the nature of science and innovation. This Digital science relies on the use of e-infrastructures, i.e. ICT-based services and tools for data- and compute-intensive research in virtual and collaborative environments, combined with an internet culture for openness and collaboration. The new tools and the new research cultures make it possible not only to perform research more efficiently but to create new types of science and research which is more open, more global and collaborative, more creative, and closer to society. However, there are specific policy challenges relating to harnessing the full potential of Digital science. It would require changing traditional research systems and cultures to better appreciate and reward openness and collaboration. In order to bring most benefits, it would require the widest possible take-up by European research organisations and different disciplines. It would also require recognising and addressing possible risks and negative effects of these new ways of doing research. Therefore, there is a need to support effective development and deployment of Digital science for achieving most benefits for science, society, policy and innovation in Europe. This paper presents a vision of Digital science for DG CONNECT, with proposed operational conclusions. The paper is based on literature review, a participative workshop organised in CONNECT on 19 November 2011, dialogue between CONNECT units, and on the feedback received from the CONNECT Management Team on the previous versions of the paper. The objective of this paper is to summarise the understanding of Digital science work areas and their relevance to CONNECT, with a concrete proposal for future action in context of Horizon The paper is divided into five Chapters. After this introduction, Chapter 2 describes the main aspects brought along with technologies that enable research to be more efficient, trustworthy and participative, with new interfaces to society. Chapter 3 outlines the potential of Digital science for science, policy, society and innovation, and challenges to making it happen. Chapter 4 describes the activities within CONNECT that link to the recognised Digital science aspects and perceived impacts. Chapter 5 concludes the paper by suggesting issues for future actions on Digital science in CONNECT, including a proposed approach to implement Digital science in the development of Horizon 2020 Work Programmes and the resulting projects. The paper includes also two Annexes: First annex presents the construction of the Digital science concept through literature review of relevant concepts; Second annex describes the current priorities defined for the CONNECT Digital Science unit. Page 1 / 14

5 Digital science in H March Scope of Digital science Digital science is about the way research is carried out, disseminated, deployed and transformed by digital tools, networks and media. These issues are often also covered by concepts such as e-science, e-infrastructures, open science, science2.0, web science, or internet science. Digital science is a new term which does not yet appear in publications, in policy documents, or in research discussions. Adopting a new term makes it possible for the Commission to define its scope in the most meaningful way for promoting excellent science in the context of the Digital Agenda, Digital ERA and Horizon2020. However, it is important that the new concept takes into account all the issues typically covered in the concepts of e- science, e-infrastructures, open science and science2.0. An interested reader can find in the Annex of this document a review of those terms as a basis for understanding the scope of Digital science. Basically, these terms reflects how the possibilities for carrying out scientific activities have evolved with the development and take up of ICT networks, tools and media. Digital science work in CONNECT aims to have a holistic perspective that covers considerations of all these aspects, and reflects the need for policy efforts in order to harness the potential of Digital science for European society and its economy. Digital science relies on the combined effects of technological development and cultural change towards collaboration and openness in research. Digital science makes scientific processes more efficient, transparent and effective by new tools for scientific collaboration, experiments and analysis and by making scientific knowledge more easily accessible. At the same time, Digital science enables emergence of new scientific practices, disciplines and paradigms to respond to the new challenges through global distributed collaborations where citizens and society participate as contributors and direct beneficiaries of scientific knowledge. New methods for research ICT has changed the way scientific discoveries can take place. Communication, computing and data storage infrastructures enable new data- and computing-intensive research tasks and new tools enable virtual experiments which were not possible before. Data is being generated in large scale through images, sensors, simulations, logging of online human activities and all this can be stored for later processing, enabling new research e.g. in social sciences and human behaviour. Combining data from various sources and new types of data exploration and analysis tools enable new discoveries and recognising new research questions, e.g. in biodiversity and genetic research. Efficient computing resources, whether high-performance computers, computing grids and also cloud computing resources enable asking complex questions and developing models which require computing power for their testing and application. Virtual experiments in silico, remote access to specific equipment (e.g. robotic telescopes), and simulation environments enable experimentation-based research in new areas and for a wider audience. New access to research results and processes Open access to research results through digital means enables faster and wider diffusion of scientific knowledge. The philosophy of openness in Digital science is even more extensive, aiming at opening the whole research process and results for peers and public, through digital media and collaboration efforts. Page 2 / 14

6 Digital science in H March 2013 Open access to research publications in open access journals or article repositories makes them freely available for anyone while new tools for citations, metadata and interoperability of repositories improve the discoverability of scientific knowledge on a new scale. Micropublications of specific pieces of scientific information make scientific knowledge accessible in new ways, through modern devices. Making research data underlying the research publications available enables reproducibility of the research by others, for verifying the results and reusing the data for new research purposes. Transparency of research improves through publishing experiments and research results which are not published in traditional science journals, e.g. results of clinical trials experiments which did not prove the expected hypothesis. New technological solutions combined with open access to research resources enable citations and cross-references between publications, data and authors in a way that enables new traceability of research evidence flows and creation of new connections between research topics and actors. These also enable new means for evaluating the value of science through following the reuse of the scientific work, replacing traditional publisher-based scientific value metrics by research-oriented ones. Opening up research resources facilitates scrutiny and feedback by peers and even the public already during the research process, enabling the research approach to be refined and improving quality through additional contributions. Collaboration in research Possibilities in research collaboration have changed dramatically through communication networks and social media, enabling completely new scales of scientific collaboration. Virtual collaboration between researchers and research organisations is today a necessary part of all scientific activities the grand challenges of today cannot be solved by any one scientist or single discipline alone. Setting up collaboration projects between researchers is supported through tools and online platforms which enable sharing data, research tools, project communication and collaborative knowledge creation in virtual research communities of global scale. New tools and platforms enable setting up large scale collaborations which can harness the collective intelligence of any interested actors. Embedding social media and social networking tools into research processes (e.g. opening notebooks, annotations) enables dynamic spontaneously arising collaborations in solving or addressing specific tasks. Informal collaborations are emerging in virtual communities of practice and through sharing personal knowledge resources which support knowledge and expertise flows in a networked system also outside specific research tasks, e.g. Mendeley 1 or ResearchGate 2 for researcher networking. Interaction with society Engaging citizens and society is possible in completely new ways, because of the new tools and platforms for research and increasing attitude towards openness. Citizens can and are interested in contributing to science both with their intellectual effort, observations and with their digital tools and resources, which creates new relationships between science and society Page 3 / 14

7 Digital science in H March 2013 Specific initiatives and networks make possible crowdsourcing of computing resources through easy interfaces for public (or even pre-installation as in case of BOINC in VAIO laptops), thereby enabling anyone to easily decide to contribute to science through their ICT resources. Engaging citizens in data gathering activities improves coverage of research data e.g. from more geographic areas, with more extensive samples or longer-term systematic data collection than would be possible by research groups alone. Also traditional forms of citizen science (e.g. bird watching), are made possible in completely new ways through online global communications. Several scientific initiatives are organised as collaborative initiatives that enable participation of citizens without in-depth scientific knowledge but with an interest to contribute to the joint activities through their intellectual effort, e.g. in form of image recognition, local context knowledge, or other intellectual efforts with essential additional contribution to professional researchers' work. Opening research results and processes through digital media and involving citizens as active participants in research processes rather than objects of research also promotes developing ethical and responsible research models where citizens and society both contribute to the results and shape the research process through proposing research ideas and comments on the results. Summary of Digital science aspects As seen above, all the Digital science aspects support each other, and contribute to the change of scientific practices. Figure 1 presents a summary of the main aspects with examples of their intersections. Figure 1 : Illustration of main elements of Digital science. Implementing Digital science strongly relies on e-infrastructure, especially for i) developing and sharing specific ICT tools for scientific tasks; ii) providing seamless online access to scientific resources, including publications and data; iii) providing and developing platforms and tools to enable large scale collaboration without the need for physical proximity. Complementarily, Digital science policies will ensure the wide and effective use of e- infrastructures in Europe. Page 4 / 14

8 Digital science in H March Potential and challenges for Digital science The changes in digitally facilitated scientific processes are already taking place but unevenly in different disciplines and in different Member States, often through separate projects and initiatives (with possible duplication of effort), and taking different approaches (or none!) to IPR and privacy concerns relating to the new models of openness and collaboration. European action is necessary for supporting effective take-up of new research methods, tackling common challenges in the transformation of research organisations and scientific processes and ensuring that the concerns of European citizens as well as the concerns of innovative industries are being addressed. This section summarises the potential areas of impacts of Digital science practices and main challenges for this potential to become reality. Potential for Digital science Transformation of science. Digital science is about technology-enabled trends in the society and the economy, which promote transformation of the scientific system, democratizing access to research and creating new linkages between science, society, policy and innovation. Hierarchically organised and specialized scientific fields become more connected with each other and with application areas. This creates new multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research, leading into emergence of new disciplines and connections to study emerging research questions and topics. Scientific practices become more efficient and trustworthy through openness that enables verifiability and transparency of research results, maintenance of proof linkages and new forms of incremental collaboration 3. Science quality metrics of the future can highlight replicability, verifiability and reuse of research results instead of publication channels. The old restricted and elite approach of science expands to a more egalitarian view of research, as scientific methods, processes and knowledge becomes more accessible to anyone through readily available tools. Learning about science becomes easier and science courses can include observation and participation in scientific communities allowing future researchers to get familiar with Digital science practices. Relationship between science, society and policy develops towards a new symbiosis and a topic of scientific study as such (cf. internet science). Through access to scientific information and processes citizens are aware of the potential and limits of scientific knowledge creation, and can participate in studying and monitoring issues relevant to them. Digital science for society. Opening access to research results and processes, and increased usage of social media for research purposes make it easier for anyone to access scientific knowledge and processes. This has the potential to improve the scientific literacy of citizens in general and improve interest and knowledge of young people in science and technology, despite their age, educational background, or socio-economic status. Participative Digital science approaches contribute to education, inclusion and employment, by supporting lifelong learning of several Key Competences, especially Science and technology, Digital competence, Social and civic competence, Sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. Moreover, Digital science has potential to re-attract young people and citizens at risk of exclusion into activities 3 Openness can tackle e.g. the problems of fraud as discussed in Page 5 / 14

9 Digital science in H March 2013 which are personally meaningful to them, contribute to their learning and thereby inclusion in the information society and economy. Digital science for policy. Various aspects of Digital science improve its trustworthiness and availability of science for policy making. Furthermore, and more importantly, empowering citizens to access, understand and participate in scientific processes enhances their acceptance of policies which are based on scientific evidence and which enable citizen participation in their development and monitoring. Embracing the Digital science approach to policy making enables creating collaborative initiatives where policy makers collaborate with scientists and citizens in searching, developing and comparing options to solve global challenges. Involving citizens in the scientific development underpinning policy decisions also encourages their ownership and engagement in implementing social changes and policies for societal benefit. Digital science for innovation. New research tools and methods together with openness, collaboration and societal involvement in research provide research results more easily available for industry and SMEs. Furthermore, they provide models which can also be used for commercial innovation (open innovation platforms) or for collaborative product and service development based on user innovations and contributions (see e.g. LEGO Mindstorms 4 ). Improved access to research results can be a driving force for innovation especially in developing regions and countries, but also participation in collaborative research applying Digital science philosophy can also provide benefits for commercial actors. Digital science enables efficient collaboration with a large group of collaborators from various backgrounds, generating ideas which can be developed into commercial products although basic research is done in the public domain (similar to Open Source software development). Figure 2 : Vision for Digital science 4 Page 6 / 14

10 Digital science in H March 2013 Challenges for Digital science Although there are many potential benefits of Digital science approaches, and successful examples of their application, transformation is not taking place equally in all organisations and disciplines, for various reasons. In some disciplines, the benefits of Digital science practices are more obvious than in others. Some fields are already advanced (e.g. astronomy) while others are lagging behind (e.g. social sciences). Further analysis of disciplinary dynamics and the specific benefits Digital science aspects could provide them is needed. Openness of research publications and results is a recognized objective but often difficult to implement by researchers, who do not necessarily have the freedom to select in which journals their results are published. Their performance for career development may be evaluated based on metrics contrary to the objectives of openness. Researchers may not be convinced of the benefits of opening results and processes with only a vague view of future benefits and no guarantees of reciprocity. Furthermore, there is a tension in the objectives of publishing new results first against collaborating and opening ongoing research processes, especially when concerning innovation and product development for business. It is challenging to develop open collaborative scientific initiatives where various types of actors, including citizens, can participate. The initiative should at the same time provide personal value for the different types of participants who are investing their personal time and effort, and ensure the scientific value of the results. Therefore, careful planning of quality assurance aspects, scientific knowledge and skills development, and motivational elements is crucial for creating successful and sustainable open research collaborations. These challenges play a major role in hindering the take-up of new scientific practices in some disciplines, organisations and geographical areas. As described earlier, Digital science is not only the take-up of technologies but also a change in scientific culture. This would require changes in the institutional practices in the research institutions (e.g. career paths and incentives) and exploration of how open innovation and research collaboration practices can improve competitive position in industry. This cultural change will not take place if there are no good examples, leaders and/or perceived benefits. Therefore, considering these issues must be included in the CONNECT work for supporting Digital science. Figure 3 : Challenges for Digital science Page 7 / 14

11 Digital science in H March Digital science in CONNECT Some of the aspects and objectives of Digital science are included in CONNECT current activities and future perspectives, visible in the FP7 work programmes and brought up in the Digital science workshop discussions in CONNECT on 19 th November Activities aim at supporting development of Digital science practices, addressing related challenges and engagement of stakeholders through policies, R&D projects and support actions. Different types of activities include, for example: Projects developing and piloting new approaches (FP7, CIP PSP, FET flagships) Projects supporting research tools and e-infrastructures development and provision (FP7) Projects, studies and networks supporting understanding of Digital science and related challenges (FP7, Digital's SSH network) Policies on promoting and enhancing specific aspects relating to Digital science (Open Access, Open Data, Digital ERA) or addressing related challenges, (IPR, privacy, digital literacy) Projects to support engaging citizens in research and learning about science (FP7) Platforms and initiatives to support stakeholder interaction on policy and science development (Digital Futures, FP7, EIP on AHA) Digital science as outlined in the previous section, and developed in Annex, forms the basis to consider the aspects of Digital science which are relevant for the work of CONNECT. This section describes ongoing work relating to Digital science in CONNECT, using a framework with three main categories: Objects of enquiry, Stakeholders and Areas of Impacts. Objects of enquiry Digital science work issues for CONNECT relate to all the main aspects (new research methods, access to research results, collaboration, interaction with society) in a cross-cutting way. Digital science relates to several policy areas, where technologies and networking can be applied. Some of its aspects are explicitly mentioned (especially Open Access) in the current policy framework, and others contribute indirectly to the higher level goals and objectives. European action is needed to support national policies and actors with ICT-related development by: Developing tools and models for Digital science. FP7 projects on various work programmes and CIP projects support development of Digital science tools and practices with applicability to various research topics: Experimental approaches and research tools, e.g. autonomous software, large scale experiments (C2:FET, E3:Net Innovation) Collective awareness platform development (E3:Net Innovation) Research collaboration models and tools for citizen engagement (C3:Digital Science, C2:FET, C4:Flagships) Data infrastructures and essential supporting elements such as metadata, citation models, author and object identifiers (C1:e-infrastructures, C3:Digital Science) Supporting European capacity for Digital science. FP7 projects (STREPs, CSAs) and other activities aim at developing and supporting the capacity of stakeholders to engage in Digital science practices: Pooling and development of main e-infrastructures in Europe for research services and research repositories, including publications and data (C1:e-infrastructures) Page 8 / 14

12 Digital science in H March 2013 Transnational access to digital research services and collaboration opportunities for all researchers, whether public, private, or amateurs (C1:e-infrastructures, C3:Digital Science) Awareness and skills for Digital science among existing and potential future researchers, research funders, research infrastructure actors (C3:Digital Science, C1:einfrastructures) Research and innovation support in service-oriented architectures, cloud computing strategy (E2:Software & services, cloud) Addressing risks and challenges. Several policy and support activities aim to address the uncertainties, risks and challenges to harnessing the potential of Digital science: Improving the theoretical understanding of Digital science including social sciences aspects (E3:Net Innovation; Digital's SSH network) Monitoring Digital science status development and barriers among stakeholders in Europe, maintain a dialogue in order to take into account their concerns into account (C3:Digital Science, D4:Stakeholders) Policy leadership and support for transformation from closed research models to openness through Open access policies, new incentive systems, science metrics (C3:Digital Science, G3:Data value chain) Addressing needs to revise IPR rules for enabling research on digital research results (e.g. data mining), licenses relating to research data sharing and publication (G1:Converging media & content, C3:Digital Science) Stakeholders The stakeholders for Digital science are the groups concerned by Digital science approaches. The supporting unit in CONNECT for stakeholder engagement is D4 Stakeholders, and other units have specific activities, as demonstrated by the examples below. Research actors, including research organisations, research funding organisations, national infrastructure providing organisations, learned societies, networks of academies, disciplinary and interdisciplinary research communities and the emerging informal researcher communities of practice. ERA stakeholder platform Open access and Digital ERA aspects (C3:Digital Science in collaboration with RTD.B1) e-irg, e-infrastructures reflection group (C1:e-infrastructures) International working group for new skills and careers needs (C1:e-infrastructures) Policymakers, including national R&I policies, all science-based policy fields in national and EU level, other Commission DGs with potential for Digital science support for policy making. e-ipf, e-infrastructures policy forum to exchange and follow up development of e- infrastructures and Digital science in EU27 (C1:e-infrastructures, C3:Digital Science) Follow-up and participation to relevant policy discussions in Council and Parliament (all policy units) GSS application with other DGs, e.g. CLIMA, SANCO (C3:Digital Science) Industry, including publishing industry, commercial research infrastructure and service providers, research performing industry (including SMEs), ICT industry. e-irg, e-infrastructures reflection group (C1:e-infrastructures) European Innovation Partnership on AHA (H2:Digital Social Platforms) Page 9 / 14

13 Digital science in H March 2013 Society, including NGOs, citizens (highly/lowly educated, employed/unemployed i.e. both those who are well-off and those at risk of exclusion), young people (at schools and outside), public intermediaries (institutions for education, health, employment). e-practice platform (H3:Public Services) Telecenters, Safer internet centers (G4:Inclusion, Skills and Youth) European Innovation Partnership on AHA (H2:Digital Social Platforms) Areas of impacts As described in Chapter 3, Digital science is perceived to have an impact on the overall scientific system and its links to society, policy and innovation. In addition to the CONNECT activities mentioned above, there are specific activities targeted to supporting these impacts, again through both policies and projects. Applying and experimenting Digital science approaches in different disciplines. Research community-driven development of virtual collaboration platform of specific topics and disciplines (C1:e-infrastructures) Large scale pilots on experimentally-driven research and open research collaborations in biomedical and clinical research (E3:Net Innovation, C3:Digital Science) Discipline specific experiments such as robotic DNA experiments in biomedical sciences (C2:FET), Virtual physiological human (H1:Health and Well-being) Bridging science and policy. Global systems science approach to policy making (C3:Digital Science) Multistakeholder dialogue platform for future vision development (Digital Futures, C4:Flagships) Engaging social change by improving the collective awareness of citizens (C3:Digital Science, E3:Net innovation) Bridging science and society. Improving the awareness and trust of citizens in science through supporting citizen science development (C3:Digital Science, C2:FET) Improving science visibility in the media (C1:e-infrastructures, C3:Digital Science) Linking scientific communities into learning science at schools and universities through ICT (C3:Digital Science, G4:Inclusion, Skills and Youth, C1:e- Infrastructures) Bridging science and innovation. Industry participation in CIP PSP pilots on open access models (C3:Digital Science) Harmonising acceptable usage policies for research collaboration on shared ICT platforms and infrastructures (C1:e-infrastructures, C3:Digital Science) Cross-cutting nature of Digital science This section has described linkages to Digital science within CONNECT. The analysis in this paper is based on the CONNECT workshop inputs and review of units' priorities. Another important aspect in Digital science work is the recognition of its cross-cutting nature not only between CONNECT units and directorates but also within the Commission as a whole. DG RTD is the most important counterpart for collaboration on this matter, but also for example DG EAC work topics have relevance for Digital science development. Figure 4 gives an illustration of linkages between Digital science related work portfolios. Page 10 / 14

14 Digital science in H March 2013 Figure 4 : Examples of Digital science related aspects in different work portfolios. This preliminary analysis provides starting points for recognizing Digital science areas which are covered, where further collaborations should be explored, and where specific attention might be needed. Summary of Digital science work landscape Figure 5 summarises the Digital science work landscape as presented in this paper. Figure 5 : Digital science landscape. Page 11 / 14

15 Digital science in H March Conclusions The changes in digitally-facilitated scientific processes are already taking place but unevenly in different disciplines and in different Member States, often through separate projects and initiatives (with possible duplication of effort), and taking different approaches (or none!) to IPR and privacy concerns. European action is necessary for supporting effective take-up of new research methods, tackling common challenges in the transformation of research organisations and scientific processes and ensuring that the concerns of European citizens as well as the concerns of innovative industries are being addressed. As reviewed in Chapter 4, CONNECT activities are addressing several Digital science aspects already. However, further work is needed, and establishing collaborations with other actors and services is important for achieving the best impact. This section outlines issues that have been recognised as important and consequently proposes an approach for CONNECT-wide work on addressing Digital science development in the context of Horizon Broad objectives for Digital science activities Recognise, support and upscale success in most promising areas. It is important to explore and improve understanding of where Digital science approaches benefit the topic and where they may not be applicable. The areas of most potential benefit should be prioritized in project and policy support activities. Attention should be put to recognizing successful research groups and small initiatives to increase scale and/or complement large-scale actions. Deploy Digital science for addressing today s challenges. Necessity drives effort and innovation. Millions in Europe are in need of jobs, education, and a sustainable lifestyle. Digital science should be concerned with finding answers to these questions in efficient, effective and participative ways. Consider possible risks and negative impacts of Digital science. Although ICT-based models and simulations offer new approaches to science, it is important not to forget observations as the basis of science, e.g. in social and biospheric sciences. A critical perspective must be maintained in supporting Digital science development and expansion, and to keep eyes open for emergence of other promising paradigms. Ensure connections and considerations for all stakeholders. Mapping of current activities suggests that there may be stronger links towards academic research stakeholders than other stakeholder groups. It is important to ensure that CONNECT has good connections and linkages to all stakeholders, including society and industry, and that their considerations are included in the Digital science support activities. Collaboration with other relevant European services must be established for ensuring good coordination of activities. Proposed approach to Digital science in Horizon 2020 This paper has recognised Digital science as an issue which needs both policy and operational dimensions in the work of DG CONNECT. In order to support Digital science effectively and in a timely manner for Europe, these must be integrated into Horizon Horizon 2020 programme should i) address the 'Objects of enquiry' recognised for advancing Digital science; and ii) mainstream Digital science through integrating it into the rules and guidelines for the Horizon 2020 projects. In order to achieve the most impact of these measures, they must be accompanied with support actions for effective best practice sharing and dissemination of the projects' results. Page 12 / 14

16 Digital science in H March 2013 Addressing the Objects of enquiry DG CONNECT must ensure that the recognised Objects of enquiry (summarised in Figure 5) for Digital science are addressed in the respective parts of the Horizon 2020 Work programmes as well as in the overall approach. This requires effective coordination within CONNECT and analysis of the relationships between the different work programme areas and their relevance to Digital science. Concretely, several CONNECT Work programmes will contribute to developing Digital science on different levels: Technologies and components for data gathering and networked systems Models, methods and tools for future research and information processing Platforms and infrastructures which can support collaborative research Innovations for Digital science, developing understanding of the related challenges The relevant work programme definitions should be open to proposals with specific contributions to Digital science, which should be effectively disseminated and shared among other projects and research stakeholders. In addition to developing these specific contributions, all CONNECT projects should apply Digital science as their working methods when relevant, and thereby contribute to developing best practices, uptake and skills for Digital science, and to engaging different groups of stakeholders, including industry. Figure 6 presents an initial mapping of how different CONNECT Horizon 2020 Work Programmes can contribute to Digital science. Figure 6 : Mapping of Digital science objects of enquiry to CONNECT H2020 Work programmes. Mainstreaming Digital science in Horizon 2020 In order to support the research actors to become aware of and benefit from Digital science approaches, in the context of Horizon 2020, the projects should be systematically encouraged to embrace Digital science. This should be supported through compulsory requirements Page 13 / 14

17 Digital science in H March 2013 introduced in the grant agreement and evaluation criteria for the projects, guiding documents for the proposers, as well as through supporting ICT tools and e-infrastructures. The objectives in all CONNECT Horizon 2020 Work programmes should be to encourage projects to implement Digital science approaches (when appropriate): to systematically make use of and contribute to e-infrastructures; to embrace open and collaborative research approaches, by sharing research data, tools and results and collaborating with broader research community, i.e. including scientific actors outside the project partner organisations; to embrace ICT tools as an interface between scientific community and its stakeholders in policy and society, explore citizen participation and invest in dissemination and educational activities; to become aware of the Digital science related policies (e.g. Open Access) and challenges (e.g. comprehensive Data management plans), implement them within the project activities and promote them in institutions also outside the project; to report both success stories and specific challenges on embracing Digital science practices by individuals, organisations and in different disciplines. This mainstreaming of Digital science should be implemented through following operational means: 1) All grant agreements should include: A mandatory clause on Open Access to publications, and an obligation to ensure that all publications produced are linked to the OpenAire portal. Commitment to appropriate digital research data management, with considerations for its preservation, sharing and dissemination Option for a special clause on Open Data Pilot 2) The project proposals for all calls would be required to include in their submission: Where datasets are produced, a Data Management outline, to describe the initial planning for managing, storing and sharing digital research data and metadata. Where appropriate, a description of the impact of the project on Digital science in the specific field, including the development of scientific open collaboration, futureoriented scientific skills, science-society interaction and on uptake of e-infrastructures. 3) In the project implementation, the PO would ensure: Awareness of the consortium of Digital science and its possible benefits for the project. Inclusion of the digital research data management plan in the project deliverables, with regular updates. Monitoring and reporting Digital science aspects of the project, such as: research participation by the broader research community, citizen participation to the scientific activities, dissemination to society, implementation of educational activities, OA publications, OA datasets made available with metadata, open code and algorithms made available by the project and the (re)use of these by others. Adopting this approach requires specific guidance documents to be prepared for proposers and for the POs, including issues such as IPR agreements with publishers and the use of DOIs (digital object identifiers). These should be developed through collaboration between CONNECT operational units, and be supported by training and information workshops. Page 14 / 14

18 Digital science in Horizon2020 Annex I: Review of definitions Annex I : Digital science Review of definitions There are several definitions relating to digital science, complementing and overlapping with each other in various ways. This paper aims to provide an overview of main terms by illustrating how the development of definitions relating to ICT-enabled scientific processes reflects the take up of technologies for scientific processes. The objective is not to find the perfect definition for each of the terms, but rather to map the overall landscape of digitally enabled research and scientific practices that should be considered when discussing the contents and elements of Digital science today. Science An example of the basic definition of science is provided by Merriam-Webster dictionary 5, where science is defined as: 3a : knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method 3b : such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena In other words, science can be both considered as related to specific fields relating to studying the physical world (natural science) or as a general mode of solving problems and obtaining knowledge through the scientific method. The scientific method is defined 6 as: principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses Although some Science definitions consider science as strictly related to the physical world (natural science), it is becoming common to refer also to other fields as Science. Wikipedia 7 lists as recognised science fields: natural science (study of natural phenomena), social sciences (study of societies), behavioural sciences (study of human behaviour), applied sciences (engineering and medicine) and formal sciences (mathematics, statistics, logic). According to this collectively developed definition, Science" may refer to any knowledge which has been reduced to an algorithmic system, and even technical arts have some overlapping with science. e-science and related terms Jankowski (2007) gives a good overview of the terminologies used at that time for reflecting the take up of ICT in research. The first term to have emerged seems to be cyberscience, first suggested in 1996 and advocated later by Nentwich (2003) through his investigation on how computers and electronic networks are impacting science. He defined cyberscience as "all scholarly and scientific research activities in the virtual space generated by the networked computers and by advanced information and communication technologies in general" (2003, p. 22). However, this term was not taken up widely. 5 accessed 24 th September accessed 24 September accessed 24 September 2012 Page 1 / 8

19 Digital science in Horizon2020 Annex I: Review of definitions The term e-science was introduced in the UK in 1999 in the context of launching a major funding programme, initially focusing on natural and biological sciences, and aimed at processing large volumes of data (Jankowski, 2007). The e-science centre established to support the UK e-science programme defines e-science in its website 8 : In the future, e-science will refer to the large scale science that will increasingly be carried out through distributed global collaborations enabled by the Internet. Typically, a feature of such collaborative scientific enterprises is that they will require access to very large data collections, very large scale computing resources and high performance visualisation back to the individual user scientists. Processing large data Distributed researcher collaboration This focus on data-intensive research tools and methods is still often connected to the e- science term, and even considered as the main issue of the current scientific developments, e.g. in the fourth paradigm for scientific exploration (Hay et al. (2009)). Another way to refer to e-science is to consider it as the exploitation of ICT research tools and infrastructures. This was the approach taken in the 2009 Communication: The emergence of new research methods that exploit advanced computational resources, data collections and scientific instruments, in other words e-science. 9 And the Australian term e-research 10 was defined in 2006 as follows: The term e-research encapsulates research activities that use a spectrum of advanced ICT capabilities and embraces new research methodologies emerging from increasing access to: - broadband communications networks, research instruments and facilities, sensor networks, data repositories with their associated data standards and management tools, and high performance computing resources; - software and infrastructure services that enable a trust and sharing relationship to be established between researchers and the wide variety of data repositories, computers, systems and networks on which they depend; and - application and discipline-specific tools such as graphics intensive visualisation, simulation software, and interaction tools that provide the human interface allowing researchers to interact with each other and with their instruments, computational facilities and data resources." High-performance computing Scientific e- infrastructure Scientific software and tools In the US, the term cyberinfrastructure is used since the (Atkins, 2003) report Revolutionizing Science and Engineering Through Cyberinfrastructure". In Europe, the term e-infrastructure is often used in a similar way. The recent GEANT expert group report (2011) 11 summarises: Science is reorganising itself as a response to powerful new data, communication and computing possibilities. One additional aspect is worth noting. Although science as such is typically considered to exclude humanities, e-science and related terms often include them as well. The term highlights the application of ICT-based research methods, high-performance computing and data-intensive processing, for whichever research field. Actually, applicability to various disciplines and the possibility to create new multidisciplinary collaborations through e-science 8 accessed 24 September COM(2009) 108 final 10 accessed 24 September accessed 24 September 2012 Page 2 / 8