Keynote

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Workshops

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The Speakers list will be announced soon. 

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Short CV

Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned professor of economics, leader in sustainable development, senior UN advisor and special advisor to former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). He has twice been named among Time Magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. He is currently director of both the Center for Sustainable Development, and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

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About PRESENTATION 

TITLE

Sustainable Development in Times of Crisis: the Role of Education

abstract

To be added soon.

When

DAY 1 - 10:30 HIGH LEVEL OPENING 

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Short CV

John P. A. Ioannidιs is a professor at the Stanford University and “may be one of the most influential scientists alive” according to Atlantic. Current citation rates suggest that he is among the 20 scientists worldwide who are currently the most commonly cited, perhaps also the currently most-cited physician. His PLoS Medicine paper on “Why most published research findings are false” has been the most-accessed article in the history of Public Library of Science.

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about PRESENTATION

title

Changing research practices towards reproducible research

abstract

Reproducible research is a worthy goal that has attracted increasing attention recently. However, different scientific fields have different notions of reproducibility and utilize different research practices. Some of this heterogeneity is justified, while other aspects can be streamlined and homogenized across disciplines. Many research practices may be changed in efficient ways that can maximize reproducibility. Some changes may have nevertheless high cost, difficulties in implementation, or collateral harms. The keynote will overview the current landscape on changing research practices to achieve more reproducible research.

When

DAY 3 - 15:00 CLOSING PLENARY 

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Short CV

Sophia Ananiadou is Professor in Computer Science, School of Computer Science, The University of Manchester and Director of the National Centre for Text Mining.  Since 2005, she has successfully directed NaCTeM to be currently a fully sustainable centre, carrying out novel, world-leading research on text mining that then informs the provision of services, tools, resources and infrastructure to a variety of users from translational medicine, biology, biodiversity, humanities, health, and social sciences. Research she has led has advanced the state of the art in text mining and contributed in novel ways to: automatic extraction of terminology and term variation; development of robust taggers for biomedical text; automatic extraction of events and their interpretation using machine learning methods; development of large scale terminological resources for biomedicine and biodiversity; linking textual evidence with metabolic and signaling pathways; association mining and hypothesis generation; supporting the development of systematic reviews using novel topic modeling and clustering methods and the development of interoperable text mining infrastructure to facilitate all the above applications (Argo).  Her team achieved top performance is several text mining challenges, e.g. BioCreaTive (2010, 2013, 2015), BioNLP (2011, 2013). Her H-index is 47.

About PRESENTATION 

Title

The Big Mechanism: from text to experiments using text mining

Abstract

One of the aims of the Big Mechanism is using text mining to link cancer pathway models with textual evidence. In this way we can automate science for drug discovery in cancer research. Text mining techniques are being employed to construct, update and verify information in relevant models, to ensure that the information used for hypothesis generation is as accurate as possible. Complex information from the literature (semantic events) are automatically extracted and mapped/compared to reactions in existing pathway models.
These comparisons allow the existing models to be verified or updated in several ways. Information from the literature can act as corroborative evidence of the validity of these reactions in a model or help to extend it. In addition, by taking into account textual context (uncertainty, negation), we can provide a confidence measure for linking and ranking evidence from the literature for model curation and experimental design.

When

DAY 2 - 14:00 Parallel Session 4

TDM: Unlocking a Goldmine of Information

See full programme here.

Short CV

Manuel Noya is a researcher turned entrepreneur, BSc Chemical Engineering (USC, Spain) and MSc Materials Science (UPM, Spain). His key areas of know-how are technology scouting, competitive intelligence, NPD (new product development), early-stage startups and innovation strategy. His professional experience involves working for over 4 years as a researcher for NEOKER: an awarded spin-off from USC (Spain). After NEOKER he participated in several R&D projects in the materials science arena, at USC (Spain) and SRI International (Menlo Park, CA). Cofounded Linknovate.com in May 2012 in Palo Alto and went through Stanford University accelerator program (StartX) in 2013. Linknovate is a ‘discovery engine’ that helps identify emerging technologies and the key-players behind them. The company provides clients such as BMW AG and REPSOL with competitive intelligence software tools. Manuel is Linknovate.com CEO since 2014, led the company to win the 1st prize of Finodex (EU Open Data Accelerator) in early 2016, two European H2020 grants in 2015 and 2016. Linknovate is now a 7 people company growing internationally.

PRESENTATION ABSTRACT

Main points

How Open Data and Open Science data can be valuable for the industry, and several ways in which it can be further processed via data mining, analytics, data visualization and machine learning to provide a bigger value proposition to industry professionals with several goals:
- Provide a better ‘state-of-the-art’ analysis (not exclusively scientific!)
- Understand emerging technologies and their key-players
- Trend analysis
End users in the industry are strategists and technologists working in new product development, competitor tracking, R&D management and new markets research.

ABSTRACT

Companies cannot keep relying on ‘manual’ and ‘handcrafted’ innovation processes to develop new products and make strategic decisions. The pace of scientific discoveries, and the explosion of emerging technologies combined with shorter than ever time-tomarket cycles led to the need for systematic tools to gather intelligence around them (competitors, newcomers, potential partners). This translated into business for patent analysis tools (Thomson Innovation, Innography, etc), IP firms, innovation consultants (Altran, Accenture, etc) and scientific content publishers (Elsevier, Springer, etc). However, these solutions are still ‘manual’, and when systematic (software) are suboptimal. Their inflexible enterprise licenses make these solutions not cost efficient and often times completely unaffordable for SMEs. With global scientific output in exponential growth by doubling every 9 years, Body Rubs: massage dating - Erotic Massage. Linknovate’s approach turns to ‘fresh data’ (both recent open data, OD, and ‘user generated data’, UGC) to provide valid up-to-date market insights, as opposed to trying to predict the future by ‘looking at a rearview mirror’.

Corporate Foresight (CF) contributes to our understanding of practices enabling firms to adapt to future environments. As Dr Etingue remarks in one of the studies pioneering longitudinal data in more than 80 companies in Europe: while the practices for adapting to current environments have been well understood, our understanding about prospective adaptation to uncertain future environments is still limited. It has been proposed, that Corporate Foresight practices are potent in laying the foundation for future superior performance. There are now studies confirming that firms with an appropriate level of Corporate Foresight maturity adapted towards their environment exhibit higher profitability compared to their competitors. Corporate Foresight preparedness seems to be a predictor for future performance.

WHEN

DAY 2 - PARALLEL SESSION 4 & 5

TDM: Unlocking a Goldmine of Information

See full programme here.

Short CV

Jon has recently completed his award-winning PhD at Imperial College London, where he researched the evolution of crocodiles and extinction through geological time. Now, he is the Communications Director for ScienceOpen, the founder of the Open Science MOOC, an Editor for the PLOS Paleo Community, a freelance science consultant and communicator, part of the Mozilla Open Leadership Cohort, the founder of the publishing platform paleorXiv, and author of kids books, including Excavate Dinosaurs!

About PRESENTATION at plenary

Title

Barriers to Open Science for junior researchers

Abstract

What are the barriers to Open Science, and how do they impact upon different demographics? Open Science is supposed to be about inclusivity, equality, and rigour. But is the way it is implemented meeting these ideals, or simply creating a new set of barriers to scholarship? Younger researchers are basically trying to survive within a hyper-competitive academic system. They are beset on all sides by systemic control and inertia, power dynamics, and fear. What they want to do for science is not always what is best for their career. This creates a system of social barriers that cannot be overcome by mandates and policies that do little to address these structural biases.
Paywalls inflict a huge level of disparity on younger researchers. They may feel they cannot afford the exorbitant fees charged by some publishers for Open Access, even if their research funders provide support for it. The way OA is currently implemented has switched the barrier from the reader side to the author side, due in part to political broadsiding from commercial publishers. Unfunded or self-funded grad students, as well as those from emerging economies, are basically doomed when it comes to such high author-facing charges.
We essentially have an academic system where researchers are forced to enter into a publication-based economy dictated by commercial values, as opposed to anything scientific. The mantra ‘publish or perish’ is dead, replaced by ‘publish and perish’ due to under-funding and competitiveness in climbing the academic career ladder. When you’re at the bottom of that ladder, it makes perfect sense to prioritise the perception of impact over the openness – some universities and funders still prioritise publishing in ‘high impact’ journals, and that’s what junior researchers will follow. This is especially worrying as many ‘open’ journals are relatively new, and have not yet acquired the same ‘prestige factor’ as more established journals.
Open peer review is also a huge barrier to overcome. We know that there are biases within academia already, and there is a fear that more transparency will amplify those biases. Junior researchers are eternally concerned that they cannot perform peer review for more senior colleagues due to fear of reprisal. What sort of academic system do we have where fear is allowed to trump good, transparent peer review? If we want to create a culture of open science, we have to address the systemic biases that act against openness.
It is younger researchers who are going to inherit our academic system in the future. We should be in a position where we are able to influence it, not be stifled by the current actors in the system. Given the importance of Open Science, there is a bitter irony in an almost total lack of knowledge about it, or training for it coming from our research institutes. If we want to truly have a culture of Open Science, we all have to work harder for it together as a global community.

About presentation at  SESSION 6

 Title

Fear and loathing in Open Peer Review

When

DAY 2 - 09:15 Plenary: Open for All? Diversity and Disparity in Open Science 
and
DAY 3 - 09:00 PARALLEL SESSION 6

Peer Review at the Crossroads

See full programme here.

Short CV

Ahmed Ogunlaja is a medical professional, founder and executive director of Open Access Nigeria, a research and advocacy organization working to promote research activity (especially among students), free online access to peer-reviewed scholarly publications, and the use of open educational resources. Ahmed is mobilizing and organizing volunteers across Nigerian universities to engage with stakeholders and policymakers both in academia and in government, with an aim to enact policies that promote access to research and education as a means of enhancing innovation and accelerating discovery.
Ahmed has been a 2016 Mandela Washington Fellow.

About PRESENTATION 

TITLE

Open Science: A Global South Perspective

Abstract

Some have expressed fears that Open Science may perpetuate rather than eliminate the inequalities in global research and innovation. Are these fears justified? How can we ensure diversity and combat the drivers of disparity in Open Science? How can we promote inclusion and ensure inclusive development through Open Science?

"Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has" - Margaret Mead.

When

DAY 2 - 09:15 Plenary: Open for All? Diversity and Disparity in Open Science

See full programme here.

Short CV

Michael is the Publisher for F1000 Platforms. He is an open science, open data and open research advocate contributing to F1000’s effort to change the way science is communicated. He played a pivotal role in launching F1000Research in 2013, and now oversees Wellcome Open Research, a new publishing platform owned by Wellcome but run by F1000. Michael previously helped to develop and subsequently manage F1000Posters, the open-access repository of posters and slides in biology and medicine. Michael is an active member of the open science community and has given many talks/seminars/workshops on the subject at international conferences and research institutions. Michael previously studied Chemical Biology at the University of Leeds, where he worked on synthesising a range of potential anti-tumor compounds.

about PRESENTATIONs 

Title - sessions 1 & 2

Open research publishing platforms: Moving beyond research journals

Title - session 6

Peer Review – time for credit, reward and recognition

When

DAY 1 - PARALLEL SESSION 1 (11:30) & 2 (14:00)

New open access models and platforms

DAY 3 - 09:00 PARALLEL SESSION 6

Peer Review at the Crossroads 

See full programme here.

Short CV

Kathleen Shearer is the Executive Director of COAR (Confederation of Open Access Repositories), an international association of repository with a membership of over 120 institutions worldwide from 36 countries in 5 continents. COAR is developing a model for scholarly communications based on a global network of open access repositories and actively promotes the role of libraries in the future of scholarly communication. Shearer is also a consultant for several other organizations. She is a research associate with the Canadian Association of Research Libraries (CARL) and a strategic consultant with the US-based Association of Research Libraries (ARL)

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About PRESENTATION 

title | session 1 & 2

Next generation repositories – moving from the “fringe” to the foundation of scholarly communication

Title | sessions 6 & 7

Building a global knowledge commons - ramping up repositories to support widespread change in the ecosystem

When

DAY 1 - 11:30 PARALLEL SESSION 1 (11:30) & 2 (14:00)

Open access models and platforms

DAY 3 - 09:00 Parallel Session 6

Building a Global Knowledge Commons - Ramping up repositories to Support Widespread Change in the Ecosystem

See full programme here.