André Julião | FAPESP Agency – The joining of forces between different countries and funding agencies will be essential to guarantee the sustainability of the planet and to face crises such as COVID-19.
The assessment was carried out by participants in the virtual seminar “GRC Americas – Open Science, International Cooperation and Sustainability”, which took place on October 11th. The event brought together representatives of research funding agencies from the American continent that are part of the Global Research Council ( GRC ) – entity that brings together the main research funders in the world.
According to the participants, open repositories of research data are already a reality, but they still have great potential to advance through collaboration between institutions from different countries.
“Science is a public good. The results of research financed with public money, therefore, are public goods and must be made available as quickly as possible, respecting the principles of scientific ethics, privacy and security, as well as the protection of intellectual property”, he stressed. Carlos Frederico de Oliveira Graeff professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the Universidade Estadual Paulista (FC-Unesp), in Bauru, during the opening of the event, broadcast to registrants via the Zoom platform.
Graeff presented FAPESP's open science initiatives, such as the 2011 launch of the Code of Good Scientific Practice (updated in 2014), which deals, among other topics, with the accessibility of information, in addition to experience with the SciELO an open access scientific journal platform that completed 25 years in 2023.
In 2019, he recalled, the Foundation launched its open access policy for the results of supported research, in addition to providing support to institutional repository network of State.
“All research supported by FAPESP must have a data management plan and this was especially important in the recent COVID-19 crisis. We are very involved in ensuring that we have open research data and I think at this point this is becoming increasingly important for the practice of science”, said the researcher, mentioning the FAPESP COVID-19 DataSharing/BR a database that brings together shared data from patients diagnosed with COVID-19 in partner hospitals.
In turn, Lautaro Matas, executive technical director of the platform The Reference said that one of the main objectives of the initiative is to give visibility to the scientific production of higher education and research institutions in Latin America, promoting open and free access to scientific publications.
“We operate as a federated network, we are built on the basis of national aggregators. We provide the software, the technology, the infrastructure to build these portals and to also develop best practices around data interoperability, literature sharing and different types of standards. With this, we build [ nodes ] national and regional, which are interconnected with international networks”, he explained.
For the researcher, the representation of each country is important, through governance built by national and regional institutions. Currently, the platform has an agreement with Spain, and is in negotiations with Portugal and African countries, to collaborate and have access to the repository network.
Artificial intelligence
During the seminar, Graeff, from Unesp, recalled another event that took place within the GRC in September. In the webinar “GRC Americas – International Cooperation on Artificial Intelligence”, the need for multilateral calls on artificial intelligence (AI) was discussed, seeking sustainability in Latin America.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that international collaboration is a very efficient mechanism for strengthening capabilities and making knowledge accessible to everyone. More than discussing sustainability and the applications of artificial intelligence, it is essential to discuss the role of funding agencies in shaping the future of research and development of AI”, he said Esther Luna Colombini professor at the Computing Institute of the State University of Campinas (IC-Unicamp), who opened the seminar.
According to the researcher, agencies have the power to foster an ethical and inclusive ecosystem, which benefits all humanity, regardless of geographic region. Therefore, it is essential that agencies support initiatives that promote equal access to AI in all countries.
“In my opinion, funding agencies can lead by example. They can establish guidelines and ethical requirements for the AI research they fund. These guidelines can serve as beacons, guiding researchers and developers to work according to best practices,” he said.