International Symposium on Open Science Clouds (ISOSC) 2023 4-6 September 2023. Venue: Beijing, China Open Science in Kenya Prof Muliaro Wafula PhD.,FCCS, FCSK Associate Professor: JKUAT Chair: CODATA Kenya Lead Scientist: AOSP EA node Introduction: Who are the key champions of Open Science in Kenya? • The Africa Open Science Platform aims to position African scientists at the cutting edge of data intensive science. The role of the AOSP East African Node is to support and promote efforts aligned with implementation of open science programmes at a regional level, strengthen knowledge networks and infrastructure access, and enhance cooperation between regions and globally in support of the AOSP’s vision. • AOSP – East African Node is a partnership between the African Institute for Capacity Development (https://www.aicad.or.ke/), and Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (https//www.jkuat.ac.ke), Kenya –the National Member of CODATA International. Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 2 Kenya Open Data Instruments Constitution of Kenya, 2010 Article 35, gives citizens the right to access information Access to Information Act 2016 AN ACT of Parliament that gave effect to Article 35 of the Constitution Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula JORD Policy Policy to promote ROI, Collaboration, Innovation, Enable Diverse Studies etc 3 Creating Innovative Videos for Learning Mathematics for Primary Schools ODSI: JKUAT To build open data based innovative mobile To encourage scientists to open their research data for public consumption and use. To use open data to offer solutions to societal challenges To engage partners support on the open research data initiative Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 4 Current Project • Development of Data Repository for Decision Making in MoHNational Vaccine and Immunization Program (NVIP) ✓Publish APIs ✓Issue DOIs ✓Create FIP Communities Organizing VizAfrica 2024: Nairobi Feb 5-7, 2024 Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 5 Priority ranking of OS issues that contribute to economic and social development in Africa Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 6 Open Government: • a culture of governance that promotes the principles of transparency, integrity, accountability and stakeholder participation in support of democracy and inclusive growth. Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 7 Kenya Open Government Partnership National Action Plan IV (https://www.opengovpartnership.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Kenya_Action-Plan_20202022.pdf) Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 8 Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 9 Aspirations of the OGP National Action Plan IV 1. Raise the threshold of ensuring companies’ real owners and their information is available for public strutiny within internationally recognized data standards 2. Government procurement processes remain open, transparent, and accessible to all across Government and in Champion Sub-National Governments 3. Data for developmental decisions-making and action is timely, available, accessible and maintained in open standards 4. Deepening democracy by ensuring the process of law and policy within the legislature is open to public engagement and participation Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 10 Cont… 5. Public servants and duty bearer are held to high-performance standards by citizens 6. Proactive disclosure and access to information by citizens, especially during these challenging time of COVID 19 7. Access to justice remains a high priority, especially for indigents, without delays or denial. 8. The culture of open government is entrenched within public service in Kenya and across the African Continent. (Ref: Extracted from Forward written by then The Deputy President and currently the President of the Republic of Kenya H.E. Dr William Ruto) Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 11 Open Science drivers in Kenya Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 12 • Open science practices such as open data, open access publications, and collaborations also need to be supported by providing the necessary supporting infrastructure. • These infrastructures include institutional repositories used to store electronic publications and data (Rosenblum, 2008) and National Research and Education Networks (NRENs), which support collaboration among researchers and sharing of research outputs (Dyer, 2009). • when early career researchers are trained on open science practices, they utilize and propagate them onwards in their career paths (Schönbrodt, 2019). Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 13 Institutions leading practice of OS in Kenya Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 14 Open Science Infrastructure-KENET • The ICT infrastructure provided by NRENs is crucial in facilitating open science practices, starting with the open scholarly literature in universities and research institutions through institutional repositories. • Additionally, NRENs facilitate open educational resources and enable research collaborations between local and international researchers (Foley, 2016). In Kenya, the Kenya Education Network (KENET) (https://www.kenet.or.ke/) is the NREN supporting research and education institutions • 71 public and private universities and 21 research institutions in Kenya have memberships in KENET • KENET provides internet connectivity to these institutions, facilitating research, sharing, teaching, and collaboration with other institutions. • NRENs such as KENET can also promote open science in academic and research institutions by providing infrastructure for open science seminars, workshops, hackathons, and any other activities concerning open science, such as open sharing of data and collaboration among researchers. Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 15 Open Educational Resources • OERs in Kenya and found that most universities are yet to offer educational resources, including teaching, learning, and research materials, openly and for free. • One must be enrolled as a student to access the open learning platforms, which is a barrier for non-students. • AOSP will provide such resources and is looking for partners Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 16 Institutional repositories • a recent study on digital research repositories in Africa showed that Kenya had 32% of repositories in Africa and was preceded by South Africa, 40% (Bezuidenhout et al., 2020). • Kenya has several public and private universities and local and international research institutions that have embraced open research at different degrees and in different ways. We found that research institutions such as the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) have repositories where their research publications can be accessed (Table 1). • Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology,, the University of Nairobi (UoN), Kenyatta University, and Africa Nazarene University have institutional repositories and open access resources within their digital Libraries (Table 1). • In addition to literature repositories, ILRI has an open access data portal where research data can be accessed. AOSP EA node would like to provide such a portal in support for growth of open access data repositories in African Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 17 Adoption of open access publishing by Kenya authors • the publishing trend in Kenya shows that scholars increasingly opt to publish in open access journals • The shift towards open access publishing is particularly welcome in Africa Open Science in Kenya -Prof Muliaro Wafula 18 Priority issues for open science policy • Adopt the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Re-usable) data principles. • Apply instrumental, procedural and distributive data justice. • Create an enabling environment in support of Open Access for all research outputs. • Support the use (application and implementation) of open licenses for both research data and literature. • Provide a shared and interoperable research infrastructure. • Incentivize data sharing and Open Access publishing 19 …2 • Encourage the use of Open Source software. • Extend the principle of Open Innovation. • Integrate data science and data management into institutional curricula. • Include citizens as stakeholders through community engagement, science communication efforts. • Determine where the limits of openness lie (e.g. privacy, safety and security). 20 (Ref: Wafula et al, 2019) 21 22 THANK YOU