At Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI), we have been working to address challenges in maintaining community-run technologies and initiatives that support science and scholarship. Through our research and engagement, it has become clear that regional differences in sociopolitical context, resourcing, etc affect the types of challenges faced by and needs of scholarly infrastructure, and investigations specific to regions would be valuable to deepen our collective understanding of how investment could be best directed to addressing these diverse needs.

Since our founding, we have conducted two separate research projects looking at scholarly infrastructure in specific regions and contexts: 

  • Exploratory research project on open Infrastructure needs in Latin America, Africa, and Asia (India), in 2023.
  • Scoping the Open Science Infrastructure Landscape in Europe, in collaboration with SPARC Europe, in 2020.

Exploratory Research Project on Open Infrastructure Needs in Latin America, Africa, and Asia

Status: Completed
Team members: Anne Britton, Tania Hernández, Naomi Penfold

Vea abajo para la versión en español.

Background

At Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI), we have been working to address challenges in maintaining community-run technologies and initiatives that support science and scholarship. So far, we have mainly been working in Europe and North America, and we are looking to better understand the issues relating to sustaining these tools and services in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Purpose of the project

Our current research is exploratory. We seek to better understand the initiatives, people, and issues involved in scholarly infrastructure in different regions and contexts. Our aim is to identify existing resourcing needs in terms of community governance, financial, technological, and organizational capacity in current and emerging open infrastructure services aimed at supporting the scientific and scholarly community in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. In the long run, our organization aims to provide funding recommendations in the open infrastructure ecosystem, and we may draw on the understanding we build from this project to do so. While we aim to increase investment, we cannot guarantee that participation in our research will lead to any funding opportunities.

You can also read more about our intentions and plans in this blog post.

Scope

We are conducting exploratory research focusing on three regions: Latin America, Africa, and Asia, between February and April, 2023.

Questions

When we speak with you, we are aiming to build relationships, learn about the infrastructure ecosystem that serves the research and scientific community in your region, better understand funding dynamics, and identify funding opportunities. Depending on your role and involvement in this ecosystem, we may ask about:

  • Your role and involvement in organizations and communities that support open science and research. We are interested in digital technologies as well as social initiatives.
  • If applicable, we may ask about your organization’s objectives, strengths and what has helped you succeed, as well as the challenges, threats and risks you face. We are particularly interested in how the organization or initiative is funded and otherwise supported.
  • Your opinion on the challenges and risks facing the sector in your region, beyond individual organizations and initiatives.
  • Your opinion on where investment is needed to support digital and social infrastructure that supports open science and scholarship. By investment, we mean not only direct funding, but also capacity building and operational support to sustain or improve community governance, open source technology, interoperability, adoption, and any other conditions that enable the ecosystem as a whole to thrive.

You can read and download more interview questions in English and Spanish in the full interview guide.

Participation and use of information

Participation in this project is voluntary and sensitive personal data will not be shared publicly. For this research, interviewers will follow the IOI privacy policy, including:

  • We may record, with your consent, informational calls we have with you, for internal research purposes only.
  • Where interviews are not conducted in English, we may invite contract simultaneous interpreters to facilitate the interview, and/or give contract translators access to interview recordings and transcripts to facilitate the translation of interview insights.
  • We utilize encrypted file storage via Sync.com for interviews and transcriptions. We regularly audit our cloud databases and other digital data storage utilities. Recorded interviews are erased bi-annually after research is completed.
  • We may produce analysis and insights using the information you provide to us, and we will share these insights in internal and external (public) research reports. We will de-identify and de-aggregate the information you provide to us: specifically, we will not directly quote you or identify you as a source without your explicit written consent.

If you have any questions regarding any of the above, please contact our research team at research [at] investinopen [dot] org.

Research output and synthesis

Proyecto de Investigación Exploratorio sobre las Necesidades de la Infraestructura de Acceso Abierto en América Latina, África y Asia

Antecedentes

En Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) nos hemos enfocado en abordar los desafíos asociados al mantenimiento de tecnologías e iniciativas que ayudan a la comunidad científica y académica. Hasta ahora, hemos estado trabajando principalmente en Norteamérica y Europa, y buscamos comprender mejor los problemas relacionados con el mantenimiento de estas herramientas y servicios en América Latina, África y Asia.

Propósito del proyecto

Estamos llevando a cabo un estudio exploratorio. Buscamos comprender mejor las iniciativas, el rol de los actores clave y los problemas que involucran a la infraestructura académica en diferentes regiones y contextos. Nuestro objetivo es identificar las necesidades de recursos existentes en términos de gobernanza comunitaria y capacidad financiera, tecnológica y organizativa en los servicios de infraestructura de acceso abierto (actuales y emergentes) destinados a apoyar a la comunidad científica y académica en Asia, Africa, and Latin America. A largo plazo, nuestra organización tiene como objetivo proporcionar recomendaciones de financiamiento en el ecosistema de infraestructura abierta. Si bien nuestro objetivo es aumentar la inversión, no podemos garantizar que la participación en nuestra investigación genere oportunidades de financiamiento.

Para obtener más información sobre nuestras intenciones y planes, vea nuestro blog (solo en inglés).

Alcance

Estamos realizando una investigación exploratoria centrada en tres regiones: América Latina, África y Asia. Ésta se llevará a cabo entre febrero y abril de 2023.

Preguntas

Cuando hablemos con usted, nuestro objetivo es generar redes de colaboración, aprender sobre el ecosistema de infraestructura que sirve a la comunidad científica y de investigación en su región, comprender mejor la dinámica de recursos e identificar oportunidades de financiamiento. Dependiendo de su rol y participación en este ecosistema, nos interesa saber sobre:

  • Su rol y participación en organizaciones y comunidades que apoyan iniciativas de investigación y ciencia abierta. Nos interesan tanto las tecnologías digitales como las iniciativas sociales.
  • De ser el caso, nos interesa saber sobre los objetivos, las fortalezas y las instancias de éxito en su organización. De igual manera, nos interesa saber más sobre los desafíos, las amenazas y los riesgos a los que se enfrenta. Estamos particularmente interesados en saber más sobre los recursos y formas de financiamiento de la organización o iniciativa.
  • Su opinión sobre los desafíos y riesgos que enfrenta el sector en su región, más allá de organizaciones e iniciativas de las que usted participa.
  • Su opinión sobre dónde se necesita inversión en términos de la infraestructura digital y social que sive a la investigación y ciencia abierta. Por inversión, nos referimos no solo al financiaminto directo, sino también al desarrollo de capacidades, el apoyo operativo para mantener o mejorar la gobernanza comunitaria, la tecnología de código abierto, la interoperabilidad, la adopción de tecnologías y cualquier otro ámbito que permite que el ecosistema en su conjunto funcione.

Puede leer y descargar más preguntas de la entrevista en inglés y español en la guía de entrevista completa.

Participación y uso de la información

La participación en este proyecto es voluntaria y los datos personales confidenciales no se compartirán públicamente. Para esta investigación, los entrevistadores seguirán la política de privacidad del IOI (en Inglés), que incluye:

  • Con su consentimiento, podremos grabar las llamadas que tengamos con usted, solo con fines de investigación interna.
  • Cuando las entrevistas no se realicen en inglés, podemos invitar a intérpretes simultáneos contratados para facilitar la entrevista y/o dar a los traductores contratados acceso a las grabaciones y transcripciones para facilitar la traducción.
  • Utilizamos almacenamiento de archivos cifrados a través de Sync.com para las entrevistas y transcripciones. Regularmente auditamos nuestras bases de datos en la nube y otras herramientas de almacenamiento de datos digitales. Las entrevistas grabadas se borran dos veces al año después de que se completa la investigación.
  • La información proporcionada se orientará a producir informes de investigación internos y externos (públicos) y estos no contarán con datos que puedan identificar a los participantes. Es decir, no lo citaremos directamente ni lo identificaremos como fuente sin su consentimiento explícito por escrito.

Si tiene alguna pregunta sobre cualquiera de los puntos anteriores, comuníquese con nuestro equipo de investigación a través del correo electrónico: research [arroba] investinopen [punto] org.

Resultados y síntesis de la investigación

Scoping the Open Science Infrastructure Landscape in Europe, in collaboration with SPARC Europe

“We see a diverse, interconnected, open, professional and viable, Open Science infrastructure (OSI) ecosystem in Europe on solid ground; one that is worth investing in. At the same time, this ecosystem — still developing — faces a range of issues that challenge its path to a more open and sustainable future.” This is a core conclusion of a report by SPARC Europe; the work is a result of a recent in-depth survey of infrastructure and/or services that are part of the European Open Science infrastructure landscape.

This work is supported by the Open Society Foundations and SPARC Europe, in collaboration with Invest in Open Infrastructure.

The report’s authors include a range of recommendations for both services and funders to help us achieve greater sustainability. Among these:

Service providers could benefit from:

  • Sharing lessons learnt. This might involve developing communities of practice and guidance; pooling resources and working with initiatives such as Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) and JROST.
  • Following good governance practices. This allows the community to trust that the infrastructure or service will be steered by the needs of the community and stay true to the values of research.
  • Going open source and adopting open standards. “Despite a strong uptake of open source and open standards by many, challenges remain for some in sharing good governance, open content and applying open standards,” wrote the authors.
  • Diversifying fund-raising efforts, upskilling to embrace a range of business revenue models. This allows the organisation to spread financial risk.

The report’s conclusions also include a call to action for agencies, institutions, charities and in particular governments to maintain and increase support for both development activities and for sustaining operations. Making smart choices on what to invest in will be essential; the report also identifies areas of key importance.

The survey that informed this report consisted of two parts: the first, an assessment of the general infrastructure offering; the second (which was divided into two sections) considered the infrastructure’s intended audience and stakeholder community, technical design, and sustainability. Part 1 of the survey was completed by 120 relevant OSIs from 28 European countries, while Part 2 was completed by 67 (part 2a) and 68 (part 2b) respondents comprising executives and senior managers, IT specialists, researchers, and contributors.

This report is based on the responses of 120 OSIs based in Europe and with a regional, national or international focus. Projects and infrastructures younger than 2 years were not included.

For more, and to download the report, click here.