BOSS

Our two-year facilitation project will enable institutional capacity by working directly with administrative decision-makers, who are authorized to implement OS on campus by way of financing, processes, policies, procedures, accountability, enforcement, staff training, investigator support, metrics, monitoring, and incentives.  This readiness approach to capacity building will ensure that research institutions are prepared to provide appropriate research administration support to the thousands of trained and certified OpenCore investigators in an efficient, coordinated, and thoughtful manner.  Our goal is to enable a cohort of executive champions who will endorse and enforce a culture of open science as a structured element of their institution’s research mission.

Our facilitation roadshow will reflect the OpenCore Summer Schools model and consist of activities that introduce and orient participants in OS principles, platforms, tools, instruments, services, options, stakeholders, and communities.  In addition, our program will deliver specific governance support, including: (1) policy implementation toolkit; (2) institutional OS best practices toolkit; (3) Collaboratory Cultures methods and metrics; and (4) a post-event sustained engagement vis-à-vis the NASA TOPS Facilitation Fellowship and monthly cohort briefings.

The roadshow will deliver two broad impact outcomes: (1) increased readiness at scores of research institutions through governance support; and (2) leadership development through strategic Fellows placement on select campuses.  Y1 activities will recruit Facilitation Fellows, Vice Presidents of Research, and Provosts from R1, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), Hispanic Serving institutions (HSI), and Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCU) research institutions; Y2 activities will focus on R2 and Minority Serving Institutions (MSI).  Presidents of scientific societies will be closely involved throughout the entire project lifecycle.

In the short term, our project will benefit those critical that enable the research itself through proposal development and review, contract and grant management, strategic planning and investment, resource and facility management, staffing and professional development, and all of the other ways that administrative professionals support research at their institutions.  By attending to the governance needs of the institution, we will accelerate the adoption of support and resources for the community of OS researchers.

It is not enough for institutions to tolerate a handful of OS practitioners, or to accommodate OS proposals on an ad hoc basis; OS research generally involves more inclusion, more intentionality, more rigor, and more stewardship than current practice.  We will equip executives with the knowledge and tools that they will need to lead their communities and prepare their campuses to thrive and grow in an open science culture. 

TOPS Training and Certification

Open Science MOOC