Presented at a NeDICC (Network of Data and Information Curation Communities) meeting, 14 March 2019, CSIR, and at the University of Pretoria and the Carnegie Corporation of New York Capstone Conference, 24-29 March 2019, Kieviets Kroon.
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African Open Science Platform. Where are we? Where do we want to go? How do we get there?
1. The Landscape of Open
Science in Africa
African Open Science Platform
Where are we? Where do we want to go?
How do we get there?
1
Susan Veldsman & Ina Smith
Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)
3. The pilot study for the platform was initiated in
2016 under the auspices of and funded by the
South African Government’s Department of
Science and Technology (DST) through the
National Research Foundation (NRF), managed
by an African Open Science Platform (AOSP)
office hosted by the Academy of Science of
South Africa (ASSAf).
AOSP is an outcome of the Accord on Open
Data in a Big Data World (Science International,
2015).
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4. Pan-Africanism
• Belief that people of African descent have
common interests and should be unified
• Envisions a unified African nation where all
people of the African Diaspora can live
• African Union (1963) safeguards sovereignty
and territorial integrity of its Member States &
promote global relations within the framework
of the United Nations
• African Union Commission has its seat in Addis
Ababa and the Pan-African Parliament has its
seat in Johannesburg & Midrand
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5. Pan-African nature of AOSP
The fundamental argument for the AOSP to
be Pan-African in scope is based on the
observation that the size, diversity and
interactivity of a science community are key
to its vitality, dynamism and creativity.
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6. AU Agenda 2063: The Africa we want
• “Rooted in Pan-Africanism and African
Renaissance, [which] provides a robust
framework for addressing past injustices
and the realisation of the 21st Century as
the African Century”
• Aim of agenda to ensure that the voice of
the African people will support “the
enduring Pan-African vision of ‘an
integrated, prosperous and peaceful
Africa, driven by its own citizens and
representing a dynamic force in the
international arena’”
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7. Addressing the UN SDGs
• Africa Consolidated Science and
Technology Plan of Action (2005)
• Collective actions to develop and use
science and technology for the socio-
economic transformation of the continent
and its integration into the world economy
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8. United Nations Economic Commission for
Africa
“the creation of an African platform for
research and innovation exchange will
enable the dissemination of goal-relevant
African research and innovation to
governments and citizens. It could form the
basis for linking researchers and innovators
with the funding required to scale up their
work. The proposed platform would
showcase and share Africa’s efforts to
develop goal-relevant research and
innovation and could be coordinated with
the Global Innovation Exchange.”
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9. Future AOSP
“the long-term objective is for the platform
to have a pan-African scope. It is
anticipated that its initial growth will take
place by: (i) coordination of effort between
institutions in a smaller number of states that
are able and willing to align their scientific
data-related policies and practices to
create mutual benefit […]; and (ii)
agreements for collaboration between
existing service providers and coordination
of their activities to maximise benefit to the
African science community.”
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14. SGCI Statement of Principles and Actions: Social
and Economic Impact of Research (2018)
Governance, Risk Management and Compliance
(GRC) participants should support and advocate for
the development and use of Open Science
platforms that widen access to knowledge and
allow integrated problem solving at a potentially
transformative (as opposed to incremental) scale.
GRC participants should commit funding towards
the development of the human capital necessary
for leveraging the potential of Big Data, as well as
invest in the infrastructure required materialising
Open Science platforms.
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15. STI Policies on the continent
• African Science, Technology and Innovation
Indicators Initiative (ASTII)(NEPAD, 2005)
• African Observatory of Science and
Technology Indicators (AOSTI) (AU, 2011)
“Creating open and free access publication
outlets for Africa, with improved review
committees” and highlighted the challenge of
high article fee requirements for publishing in
citation-indexed journals and the high
subscription prices to commercially available
databases.
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17. ICT Infrastructure
• Internet bandwidth & connectivity
• 37 of 54 African countries are connected as a
result of AfricaConnect & AfricaConnect2
• ISPs with monopolies
• IXPs to make Internet cheaper and faster
• AfricaConnect 3 from July 2019
• High-performance computing
• Level 6 NRENs (Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, South
Africa)
• KENET (Kenya), TENET (South Africa), RENU
(Uganda), and ZAMREN (Zambia)
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19. • Digital SADC 2027
• develop a solid information and
communication technology infrastructure,
addressing broadband challenges, affordable
high-speed Internet, developing human
capacity and skills in ICT technologies, and
more
• SADC Strategic Plan on STI (2015-2020)
• guiding the region to create an enabling
environment to harness science, technology
and innovation as a tool to address socio-
economic challenges for sustainable
development in the region
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20. • Data Curation (data repositories, RDM)
• Science Gateways (6 from Sci-GaIA)
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23. Capacity Building
• Online and/or short courses (CODATA, Carpentries)
• Universities:
• African Centre of Excellence in Data Science (University of
Rwanda)
• African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS)
• Almaahad Almutagadem Specialized Computer Training
Centre (Sudan)
• High Performance Computing, India-Tanzania Centre of
Excellency in ICT (ITCoEICT) (Tanzania)
• Institute for Intelligent Systems (IIS) Lagos State University
(Nigeria)
• Pan-African University (PAU, Kenya)
• ICT Centre of Excellence & Open Data (iCEOD) (Jomo
Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, Kenya)
• Sol Plaatje University (South Africa)
• University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin)
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24. • University of Botswana (Botswana)
• University of Cape Town (South Africa)
• University of Johannesburg (South Africa)
• University of Pretoria (South Africa)
• University of the Western Cape (South Africa)
• University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)
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30. • Africa Data Consensus roadmap (United
Nations High Level Conference on the
Data Revolution, 2015)
• African Information Highway (AIH): Open
Data for Africa Data Catalogue (AfDB)
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31. Where do we want to go?
S1: Cloud Computing &
Analysis Tools
S2: Software Tools &
Policies/Practice for RDM
S3: African AI & Data Science
Institute
S4: Data Intensive Research
Programmes
S5: Network for Data-
Intensive Skills
S6: Network for Open
Science Access & Dialogue
https://tinyurl.com/y7aw4oa4
32. Vision
“African scientists are at the cutting edge of
contemporary, data-intensive science as a
fundamental resource for a modern society.
They are innovative global exponents and
advocates of Open Science, and leaders in
addressing African and Global Challenges.”
Source: The Future of Science and Science of the Future
https://tinyurl.com/y7aw4oa4
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33. Mission
“The African Open Science Platform will
convene and coordinate the interests, ideas,
people, institutions and resources needed to
advocate and to advance open science in
and for Africa. The Platform is:
• a federated system that provides scientists
and other societal actors with the means to
find, deposit, manage, share and reuse data,
software and metadata in pursuing their
interests;
• a network providing connective tissue
between dispersed actors in ….
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34. … pursuit of shared and overlapping open
science goals by:
• supporting scientists in pursuit of the highest levels of
excellence, in both curiosity-driven and
application-driven research;
• enabling consortia that wish to utilise powerful
digital tools and cutting-edge data science to
address important scientific problems;
• developing open science capacities in individuals
and institutions at all levels of public and private
domains;
• creating and supporting networks of engagement
between scientists and other societal actors in
open innovation and in addressing local, national
and international issues of major public concern.
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Source: The Future of Science and Science of
the Future https://tinyurl.com/y7aw4oa4
35. Draft SA White Paper on STI, 2018
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“As part of its commitment to African
STI cooperation, South Africa will also
work to advance the open science
agenda elsewhere on the continent
and within regional frameworks. The
strategic role of the African Open
Science Platform, hosted by the
Academy of Science of South Africa,
which promotes African-wide
development and coordination of
data policies, data training and data
infrastructure, will be leveraged with
the support of the DST and the
National Research Foundation (NRF).”
36. Similar to EOSC …
"We are not building the future EOSC from
scratch, but will be starting from what
members of the community worked in the
last years: inclusiveness is going to be
critical, especially in regions whose voice
has not been heard enough so far." -
Cathrin Stöver, Chief Collaboration Officer, GÉANT
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37. Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy
for Africa 2024 (STISA-2024)
Sets out priorities for the African research
community, including:
1. disease prevention & control;
2. climate resilience (disaster risk);
3. environmental protection (biosphere,
hydrosphere);
4. food and nutritional security;
5. smart resilient cities;
6. achieving sustainability goals;
7. improved knowledge production;
8. improved intra-Africa research collaboration.
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38. Priority Interdisciplinary Programmes
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United Nations Programme on Reducing
Emissions from Deforestation and Forest
Degradation
Climate & Water
E.g. Climate Change, Agriculture, Hydrology,
Resilient Cities, Disaster Risk Reduction
39. How do we get there?
• Y3: Data-intensive flagship project
• Y3: Open Science Infrastructure Roadmap
• Call for proposals to “build” Future AOSP
• Founders’ meeting – August, Egypt
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40. Thank you!
Also to DIRISA for hosting the AOSP web
page
Susan Veldsman
susan@assaf.org.za
http://africanopenscience.org.za
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