The Challenge of the Digital Revolution for sub-Saharan Africa: Seizing the Opportunity through Open Science - Report and Policy Brief

This report and policy brief were commissioned by the African Science Granting Councils’ Initiative (SCGI) as a motivating contribution for the theme of the Science Granting Council’s 2019 Annual Forum in Tanzania: Open Science in Research and Innovation for Development.  The report explores the impact of the digital revolution; describes the array of essential tools and processes required for the new paradigm of open science; and highlights the magnitude of the task of building a strong open science capacity on the contemporary framework of African science and its open science activities.  Having identified the crucial enablers of open science that need to be put in place and inhibitors that need to be minimised or removed, the report the presents a series of recommendations.

The strength of the Science Granting Councils lies in their intermediary position between governments and the science community, influencing and being influenced by both. Acting as a collective, they could achieve efficiencies of scale, stimulate virtual critical masses, intra- African collaboration and enhanced impact. They should consider the timely creation of an African open science area. They should explore the potential for convergence of relevant national policies, for radical changes in the modes of scientific communication and the use of science evaluation metrics. They should explore means of federating IT systems. They should engage with stakeholders in plotting a way forward, including governments, policymakers and science academies; researchers and their institutions, particularly the universities; and international supporters in seeking greater strategic convergence between their respective priorities.