Open Science
NODC follows the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. Adopted by UNESCO in November 2021, the recommendation is the international normative framework for open science policy and practice. The document includes 1) an internationally agreed definition of Open Science, 2) a set of shared values and guiding principles for Open Science and 3) a set of actions that contribute to the fair and equitable implementation of Open Science.
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Open Science is: “An inclusive construct that combines various movements and practices aiming to make multilingual scientific knowledge openly available, accessible and reusable for everyone, to increase scientific collaborations and sharing of information for the benefits of science and society, and to open the processes of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation and communication to societal actors beyond the traditional scientific community.”
It operates on the principle of being 'as open as possible, as closed as necessary'
Open Science comprises all scientific disciplines and builds on the following 'key pillars:
- Open scientific knowledge,
- Open science infrastructures,
- Open science communication,
- Open engagement of societal actors
- Open dialogue with other knowledge systems.
Open Science encourages scientists to develop tools and methods for Open Science Knowledge, including methods, sw/hw, data/metadata, publications and educational resources.
By adopting the recommendation on Open Science, the Member States of UNESCO expressed their common will to strengthen international scientific cooperation in seven areas of action to Open Science:
- Promoting a common understanding;
- Developing an enabling policy environment;
- Investing in infrastructure and services;
- Investing in training, education, digital literacy and capacity-building;
- Fostering a culture of open science and aligning incentives for open science;
- Promoting innovative approaches at different stages of the scientific process;
- Promoting co-operation to reduce digital, technological and knowledge gaps.
The Data Centre contributes to the achievement of the following goals of Open Science in international marine strategies:
- Open data and content - the Centre makes data findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable, in line with FAIR principles, through collaborations and international projects, expanding multidisciplinarity of its action, both in terms of parameters considered and skills used, and increasing the number of experimental information stored.
- Open Source - the Centre develops and promotes open computer science softwares and infrastructures to enable the academic community to share and process data and research results across scientific borders and domains.
- Open and reproducible research - The Centre develops, and makes freely accessible, guidelines for the open management of public data on marine water quality.
- Research integrity - The Centre defines and uses open data policies for data collected as part of institutional programs, supported by the possibility of issuing DOIs, in compliance with intellectual property.
- Citizen Science - The Centre makes available at European level the data collected by citizens through open applications developed to foster citizen science, that is, all initiatives aimed at promoting the recognition of citizens as valid producers of scientific knowledge.
The Data Centre participates in the Italian Computing and Data Infrastructure (ICDI) working group, created by representatives of some of the main Italian Research and Digital Infrastructures, with the aim of promoting synergies at national level in order to optimise Italian participation in the current European challenges in this field. These include the European Data Infrastructure (EDI), the High Performance Computing (HPC) and European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). Concerning the latter, the OGS is one of the founding members of the EOSC Association, which is committed to promoting Open Science.
The Data Centre information system is part of the pan-European SeaDataNet infrastructure for the integrated management of marine data, which connects more than 100 national oceanographic data centres.
NODC manages the collection of European marine litter data based on the monitoring provided for in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive through the development and maintenance of three databases that are unique in Europe.
On a global scale the Centre participates in activities for transparent and accessible seas and oceans linked to the UN Ocean Decade and in the implementation of global data platforms in support of the sea-related objectives of the UN Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development.
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