University presidents are calling for greater attention to open science.

At the WLA Presidents’ Forum held in Shanghai on Monday, the university president stated that open science is a movement aimed at making scientific research accessible to all segments of society and is of paramount importance to the future development of higher education institutions.

University presidents from China and abroad who attended the event unanimously agreed that universities should share knowledge, data, and innovations to help address challenges such as global warming, food security, sustainable energy, and infectious diseases. They added that major breakthroughs largely depend on open, shared scientific infrastructure that transcends academic disciplines and national borders.

As part of the Fourth World Laureates Forum, the WLA University Presidents’ Forum brought together 131 global science laureates, including 68 Nobel Prize winners, participating both online and offline. The forum was co-hosted by the World Laureates Association and the China Association for Science and Technology.

Gong Qihuang, Executive Vice President of Peking University, stated that higher education institutions worldwide should establish open science policies that are public, transparent, equitable, and inclusive, and develop institutionalized, standardized frameworks to advance this agenda.

He stated that Peking University has long been committed to advancing open science and the principles of openness.

“Today, papers published by Peking University that involve collaborative research projects with other institutions account for one-third of our total research output,” said Gong, who is also an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Hugh Brady, Vice-Chancellor and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom, added that open science is part of a broader open research agenda.

Brady, who attended the forum via a video link, said, “Open research practices are relevant to all disciplines, and broad interdisciplinary engagement is essential.”

Etienne Auge, Vice-President of Paris-Saclay University, stated that the university’s open science initiatives should also strive to engage more extensively with non-academic stakeholders.

“These entities include companies—especially small and medium-sized enterprises—citizen science, and public debates involving science,” he said.

  (From ChinaDaily)