CSPC 2017

In 2016 the European Commission made a commitment to Open Science as the default approach to the dissemination of knowledge by 2020, with a focus on projects receiving funding from the Horizon 2020 funding envelope. Other jurisdictions, such as Australia, are also embracing this approach. In Canada, the support for Open Science as a default is nascent, best represented by individual projects like the one recently announced by the Montreal Neurological Institute. The MNI has committed to release all research and data emerging from their efforts as open data by default for 5 years, placing them in the lead in Canada in providing an exemplar for Open Science. In another example the Governments of Canada and many Provinces have committed to providing access to Open Data as a default approach to government generated/supported data, which is increasingly driving innovation in research and economic development. The approach in publicly funded research still tends to be Closed by Default, although this is changing as domains require the deposit of research data with publications, and as nations develop deposit mandates. The Open Data Institute has suggested that access to open data results in a 0.5% increase in GDP, which in Canada's case would mean a $60 Billion impact. On the other hand, spin-off and licensing revenue generated by Canada's universities in 2014 was $62 Million. Given this stark contrast between traditional and emerging approaches to accessibility to data, and the different impacts on economic development, a change in Canada's policy framework to embrace open data stands to have a huge impact on the Canadian economy.
This talk will provide the context in Canada as well as internationally, and discuss the opportunities and challenges to adopt an "Open by Default" approach to the dissemination of publicly funded research.