Open Science To Enable Free Exchange of Knowledge
Officiating during the Botswana Open Science Symposium which was held in Gaborone on November 23, 2022, the Minister of Education and Skills Development, Honourable Dr Douglas Letsholathebe pointed out that promoting open science and open data is a crucial way to advance digitalisation, which is described in the Reset Agenda as a way to boost productivity and provide services to the general public. He emphasised that fora such as the Open Science Symposium contribute to the shift that the scientific community desires to see.
The symposium, held at the Botswana Digital and Innovation Hub (BDIH) brought together scientists, researchers, scholars, policy makers and librarians. With the establishment of the Botswana Research and Education Network (BotsREN), the network and the library community are looking to foster open science and open access to playing a critical role in the creation, management, discovery and reuse of scholarship.
Open science is a collaborative culture made possible by technology that enables the free exchange of knowledge, information, and data among scientists and the general public in order to advance scientific inquiry and comprehension.
The symposium’s primary objective was therefore to discuss topics such as the status of open science (OS), open access (OA) in Botswana, policy framework on open access and open science, institutional culture and open science/open scholarship and building capacity to support open science or investing in human resources.
The National Vision 2036, which speaks to Botswana’s transition from a resource-based to a knowledge-based economy, is perfectly matched with the Minister’s statement that Open Science and Open Data are current challenges in this digital era marked by changing technology.
He explained that UNESCO’s Open Science recommendations call for member states to establish applicable legislation and National Research, Science, Technology and Innovation (RSTI) structures that promote open science. The Minister therefore, emphasised that in order to maximise the use of open science, Botswana should consider the UNESCO recommendations and create the necessary national policy frameworks.
