Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor on Friday launched an Africa-wide initiative to promote the development and coordination of data policies, data training and data infrastructure.

The African Open Science Platform aims to promote the value – and exploit the potential – of open data for science.

The platform will play a critical role in assisting African countries to develop the necessary capacities to manage and exploit scientific data for the benefit of society.

“I am proud that [the Department of Science and Technology], and its entities the National Research Foundation (NRF) and the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), are contributing to this crucial mission,” noted Pandor.

She explained that the onset of the digital revolution had created an unprecedented explosion in the data available for analysis as a basis for greater understanding and more efficient policies by scientists, policymakers, businesses, citizens and champions of civil society.

Pandor noted that extremely large data sets, or ‘big data’, drive this revolution, adding that researchers are able to recognise subtle but powerful patterns in areas across the sciences, from security to genetic research and human behaviour.

She added that, with several open science activities under way across Africa, a great deal is to be gained if these activities are coordinated and developed through a coordinating initiative.

“The African Open Science Platform is an excellent example of the tangible impact our science forum has already achieved in harnessing international partnerships to advance African science.

“It is envisaged that the African Open Science Platform will be a basis for shared investment in infrastructure. It will harvest and circulate good ideas, spread and support good practice and develop the capacities of individuals and institutions,” noted the Minister.

She added that the platform would promote key applications of relevance to African economies and societies and would act as a conduit for links with the international open data and open science programmes and standards that are vital if it is to flourish.

An open science platform is an integrated set of arrangements that provides a policy, capacity-building and infrastructural framework for enhanced accessibility and impact. Such initiatives also focuses on the creation of national open science forums, through which policies and coordination can be discussed and established.

The high-level trajectory of development of the platform will be determined by an advisory council, while its technical development will be determined by a technical advisory board. Both bodies will have membership drawn from the whole region.

Experts from across the region convened during a one-day workshop and a parallel session at the Science Forum South Africa 2016, which took place at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research on Thursday and Friday. These experts discussed and co-designed the African Open Science Platform’s development and its themes, including coordinated policy development, incentives and benefits, capacity building and training, as well as the roadmaps for coordinating data infrastructure.

The pilot phase, launched on Friday, is being supported by the South African Department of Science and Technology, funded by the NRF, directed by the Committee on Data for Science and Technology, known as CODATA, and the Committee on Data of the International Council for Science, and implemented by ASSAf.

The initiative originates from the Science International Accord on Open Data in a Big Data World, which was launched last year. The accord presents an inclusive vision of the need for and the benefits of science open data internationally, particularly for lower- and middle-income countries.