ICRE8 has been granted funding for the H2020 (EINFRA-2016-1) OpenAIRE project – CONNECTing scientific results in support of Open Science.
The main concept behind OpenAIRE-Connect is to realize, operate, and leverage the uptake of two new services that build on and extend the existing OpenAIRE technical and networking infrastructure, to stimulate a technical and cultural shift towards a scholarly communication ecosystem supporting more effective/transparent evaluation and reproducibility of research results.
Using both OpenAIRE-Connect’s services (the Dashboard explicitly, the Broker implicitly) as well as Zenodo (with its community and research artefacts functionalities) ICRE8 will build an Open Science directory of the SDSN-Greece research publications, data and related models (linked to funding), with potential uptake by SDSN-Med. This would be a pilot for the global SDSN (Sustainable Solutions Network of the United Nations).
The UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN), set up in 2012, promotes practical problem solving for sustainable development, including the design and implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015 by the United Nations. Following the adoption of the SDGs, SDSN is now committed to supporting the implementation of the SDGs at local, national, and global scales. In an effort to overcome the compartmentalization of technical and policy work by promoting integrated approaches to the challenges facing the world, SDSN Greece, through ICRE8, is embarking on the creation of an electronic database (e-library) through national funding that will aggregate the complete body of research work that relates to the SDGs in Greece and beyond. Available in the English language, the e-library will also give visibility to research work undertaken in Greek that is currently not easily accessible or searchable.
Currently, ICRE8 is gathering information on completed and on-going research projects of Greek institutions that are relevant to the three thematic priorities of SDSN Greece (Natural Capital Valuation; Ecosystems, Water and Biodiversity; Sustainable Development in Times of Crisis; Climate Change: Mitigation and Adaptation Policies) and the 17 SDGs, research and data spanning of the last 20 years. The aim is to make this information accessible to interested stakeholders through tools that will help them analyse and create indices on social, economic and environmental issues. In the short-run, it will be investigated how this e-library can be integrated into OpenAIRE-Connect reaching a wider audience. This initiative could act as a pilot for all national and regional SDSN hubs, in the long run. The aim is for the e-library to expand and include all SDSN related research, worldwide, with OpenAIRE-Connect acting as the international hosting platform. Therefore, OpenAIRE-Connect will assist greatly in publishing datasets, scientific methods and indices to a wide range of actors (public authorities, general public, policy makers etc.) that due to accessibility restrictions neglect robust scientific results and methods.