Welcome to the first quarterly ORION Open Science newsletter. The aim with the ORION project is to explore ways in which research and funding organisations in life sciences and biomedicine can open up the way they fund, organise and do research. By subscribing to our newsletter you can keep up to date on the progress of the project, get the latest information about trainings, co-creation actitivities and interesting events on Open Science and Responsible Research and Innovation.

Our new report "Public attitudes to life sciences research in six European countries" shows that interest in life sciences research is generally high among citizens and that the three most accepted purposes of using genome editing are related to the medical field. 6000 persons were interviewed in this pan-European study which was led by the ORION partners VA in Sweden and CEITEC in the Czech Republic.

Meet us at ESOF in Toulouse 

Join our sessions "Does Open Science Improve Your Career Prospects? on 12 July and "Can public opinion shape the future of genome editing?" on 13 July at ESOF. During the sessions we would like to have your views on how the push for Open Science can improve your research career and your opinions on hot topic issues, such as genome editing.

Step-by-Step: ORION Workshop trains funders in Open Science

One frequent argument that is made by researchers and Open Science advocates alike is that changes to the scientific process need to come from where the rewards are: funding. The aim of our pilot workshop for funders, held in Madrid in June, was to help them become more informed and confident about incorporating Open Science in the funding process. 

Forthcoming activities

Does Open Science Improve Your Career Prospects? ESOF 2018, 12 July, Toulouse 
This workshop will help researchers explore whether Open Science could benefit their careers. Join the discussion about the challenges of Open Science, exchange ideas on successful strategies, and get practical, personalised support. Read more

Can public opinion shape the future of genome editing? ESOF 2018, 13 July, Toulouse
What responsibilities do scientific stakeholders have in consulting the public, and how can public opinion influence the future of genome editing research? Participate in our dilemma café and discuss these issues with international representatives. Read more

Open Science: From values to practice 4–5 October, Barcelona
The goal of this B-Debate is to start building a roadmap for practicing Open Science. By gathering national and international experts from different disciplines we will facilitate an exchange of knowledge and good practices among the participants. Read more

Open Science Training – Open Con 2018 9 October, Berlin
This highly interactive workshop will allow participants to gain a strong understanding of the current situation, as well as plan how to make practical and effective changes to incorporate Open Science principles in the research process and improve their scientific practice. Read more

Meet the Team

In short

Exploring public opinion on genome editing  
At the core of the ORION project is co-creation, which involves collaborating with different groups of stakeholders (public, policy, industry) to come up with new ideas to support and increase the impact of scientific research. Over the next two years the Babraham Institute, together with MDC in Germany, VA in Sweden, and CEITEC in the Czech Republic will launch a co-creation exercise on emerging technologies as genome editing.  

What would you reveal for research?
"Have you ever Googled your symptoms?" Most people would answer "yes" to this question, using the internet to find information is a normal part of life in European society. However, if the question becomes 'Would you put your genome sequence online?' then even those people with a big 'digital footprint' and a consistent social media presence would hesitate. Read more our citizen science session at the re:publica conference in Berlin in May.
 

About ORION Open Science

The EU-funded ORION Open Science project aims to explore ways in which research performing and research funding organisations in life sciences and biomedicine can open up the way they fund, organise and do research. We will embed Open Science principles in the research process and involve citizens, policy makers and researchers in co-creation experiments, public dialogues, training and citizen science.