Social sciences, humanities and their interoperability with the European Open Science Cloud: What is SSHOC?

Das EC H2020-Clusterprojekt SSHOC zielt darauf ab, eine vollwertige Open Cloud für die Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften bereitzustellen, in der Daten, Tools und Schulungen verfügbar und für die Nutzerinnen und Nutzer von SSH-Daten zugänglich sind. Der Fokus des Projekts wird bestimmt durch das Ziel, die Innovation der infrastrukturellen Unterstützung der digitalen Wissenschaft sowie die multidisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit zwischen den verschiedenen Teilbereichen der SSH zu fördern und darüber hinaus das Potenzial für gesellschaftliche Auswirkungen zu erhöhen. Ziel ist es, ein europäisches offenes Cloudökosystem für die Sozial- und Geisteswissenschaften zu schaffen, das aus einer infrastrukturellen und menschlichen Komponente besteht. SSHOC wird sichere Umgebungen für den Austausch und die Nutzung sensibler und vertraulicher Daten etablieren. Es wird zur Open Science-Agenda und zur Realisierung der European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) sowie zu Innovationen beitragen, die sich aus der Kopplung heterogener Datentypen und der Arbeit am Interoperabilitätsprinzip von FAIR ergeben.The EC H2020 cluster project SSHOC aims to provide a full-fledged Social Sciences and Humanities Open Cloud where data, tools, and training are available and accessible for users of SSH data. The focus of the project is determined by the goal to further the innovation of infrastructural support for digital scholarship, to stimulate multidisciplinary collaboration across the various subfields of SSH and beyond, and to increase the potential for societal impact. The intention is to create a European open cloud ecosystem for social sciences and humanities, consisting of an infrastructural and human component. SSHOC will encourage secure environments for sharing and using sensitive and confidential data. It will contribute to the Open Science agenda and realization of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), as well as contribute to innovations stemming from the coupling of heterogeneous data types and work on the Interoperability principle of FAIR

Research Infrastructure Megaproject (RIMPS) management in an ecosystem perspective

As the economic, technological and social challenges of creating national and regional competitiveness have become increasingly difficult to address in a valuable way, growth-friendly factors like research infrastructure need to be exploited in their full capacity and capabilities. This paper outlines the principal characteristics of megaprojects in the field of research infrastructure in an ecosystem perspective. The paper is considered to be an empirically informing positioning paper that seeks to encapsulate the success factors required for RIMPs. The analysis of the RIMPs is based on a range of methods (deduction, synthesis, case study analysis; systemic and holistic approaches) used in order to address the issues under examination. The paper discusses the role of research infrastructure megaprojects for creating the European Research Area and boosting the innovation potential of the European economy. The well-defined profile of RIMPs with clear understanding of their specific characteristics, considered within the ecosystem framework, are the most important precondition for successful project management. research limitations in this paper are predetermined by the lack of comprehensive analyses in the field of RIs, comparing different practices and national models and discussing the challenges for their effective management

Evaluating the implementation of international computing curricular in African universities: A design-reality gap approach

Efforts are been made by Universities in developing countries to ensure that it's graduate are not left behind in the competitive global information society; thus have adopted international computing curricular for their computing degree programs. However, adopting these international curricula seem to be very challenging for developing countries having in mind that they were developed for developed rather than developing countries realities. In this paper, we use Heeks (2002) design-reality gap as an evaluative space for an international computing curricula assessment. We employed the OPTIMISM concepts of the design reality gap framework to focus on the match or mismatch of implementing such curricula in a developing country setting. We based our evaluation on the design and implementation of an international (British) computing degree programs in a private university in Nigeria. Our analysis shows that significant progress has been made, but that important gaps between design and reality exist, hence, challenges persist. The study concludes with some recommendations for policy makers advancing an agenda for "ICTs for Development" in the education sector

Before Peer Production: Infrastructure Gaps and the Architecture of Openness in Synthetic Biology

Legal scholarship on intellectual property needs to be reoriented to consider how state action helps to generate the infrastructure of emerging fields in ways that prove conducive to their development. In this Article, I contribute to that reorientation through an in-depth analysis of one important emerging technology, synthetic biology. The ambition of synthetic biology is to make biology easier to engineer through standardization and associated technical processes. Early successes indicate the scientific promise of the field and help to explain why its advocates are concerned to see the field develop in an open and publicly beneficial manner. What openness might mean in the patent-dominated context of biotechnology remains unclear, however, and requires a reassessment of software’s “copyleft” concept that provided initial inspiration to the scientists and activists working on open synthetic biology. In this Article, I focus on the efforts of the BioBricks Foundation (BBF), the leading non-profit in synthetic biology, to promote the open development of the field. I explore the rationale behind the BBF’s decision to pursue a “public domain” strategy via a new legal agreement, the BioBrick™ Public Agreement

Governance of EU research policy: Charting forms of scientific democracy in the European Research Area

The nature of public participation in EU research governance is an under-explored area. Assumptions that governance arrangements enable direct participation of ‘the public’ are identified in the academic literature on science communication. This paper considers the extent to which such assumptions can be supported. It presents findings from a preliminary investigation into the discursive construction of the ‘scientific citizen’ in selected official texts of the EU in the context of the development of the European Research Area, focusing on new research infrastructures with the legal status of a European Research Infrastructure Consortium. Specific modes of participation are identified: as assessors of the accountability of decision-makers; as recipients and beneficiaries of scientists’ knowledge-based decisions; and as participants in the scientific process via open access arrangements. The participation of the ‘scientific citizen’ is constructed as linked but external to the decision-making processes

The Origin and Implementation of the Smart-Sustainable City Concept: The Case of Malmö, Sweden

The concept of a smart-sustainable city (SSC) has recently come to dominate urban sustainability political agendas and academic discourses in Europe. This thesis investigates (1) the origination of the SSC concept, (2) how it is being framed as an approach to sustainable urban development, and (3) how it can be contextualized in concrete projects and urban planning initiatives in the city of Malmö, Sweden. The SSC is founded on the convergence of several prevailing international trends: the devolution of international environmental governance to the local level; the increasing use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in urban planning and development; and the decentralization of economic policymaking to municipal governments. As a strategic approach to sustainable development, an SSC is one that promotes the use of ICT and collaborative public-private partnerships as the primary means of balancing green economic growth with low carbon, sustainable development. This concept is founded on the significant potential of ICT to promote energy and resource efficiency in urban services and systems and to drive behavioral changes as citizens make more data-informed decisions about their lifestyle and consumption patterns. Proponents argue that more collaborative partnerships in cities foster coordination, innovation and attract necessary resources to help cities address complex sustainability problems. While the SSC concept has been criticized by some social science researchers for its overemphasis on technology and for reframing urban sustainability challenges as market opportunities for private companies and corporations, the case of Malmö reveals a more positive outlook. The Malmö example shows that ideas and strategies inherent within the SSC concept can successfully create technologically and ecologically advanced neighborhoods, but also risk excluding parts of the city and its population from accessing any benefits created. While the SSC concept is not without its faults, contradictions and hyperbole, this thesis concludes that the SSC model for sustainable development can offer opportunities to engage a diversity of actors in finding solutions to a city’s most pressing and complex sustainability challenges