ORION Open Science

ORION Open Science is a collaborative EU project exploring ways in which research and funding organisations in life sciences and biomedicine can open up the way they fund, organise and do research. VA (Public & Science) is one of the nine partners in the project. The project started in May 2017 and will end in September 2021.

ORION (Open Responsible research and Innovation to further Outstanding kNowledge) will engage many different types of stakeholders in the project including research and funding organisations, citizens, policy makers, and industry.

ORION will explore ways in which research and funding organizations in life sciences and biomedicine can open up the way they fund, organize and do research. The project aims to trigger evidence-based institutional, cultural and behavioural changes in Research Funding and Performing Organizations (RFPOs), targeting researchers, management staff and high-level leadership.

The long-term vision is to “embed” Open Science and Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles (ethics, gender, governance, open access, public engagement, and science education) in RFPOs, in their policies, practices and processes to organize and do research.

Core elements of the project include:

  • Benchmarking (through surveys, case studies, personal interviews, focus groups and stakeholder assessment workshops,) to analyse existing open science knowledge and practices and better understand the current landscape.
  • Co-creation experiments involving multiple stakeholders around three specific challenges: Opening up the research engine; Identifying risks and opportunities presented by disruptive technologies; and Running citizen science projects in fundamental research.
  • Training: developing and running training for researchers and professional staff at funding agencies on RRI and Open Science concepts, practices and tools.

All materials and resources produced by ORION will be widely disseminated and freely available.

Project consortium:

Contact:

If you would like to find out about ORION, please contact Maria Hagardt International Relations & Communications Manager at VA.

You can also follow the project on Twitter: @orion_opensci, on Facebook and read more about the project at the ORION website.

 

Read the latest articles about ORION:

| Av Vetenskap & Allmänhet

Engage the public in science through dialogue and co-creation – top tips and tricks

Global societal challenges together with growing public interest in science present both opportunities and challenges for the research world. Open Science is a way to ensure that citizens are involved in research, and that the views of different stakeholders are taken into consideration. How science communication practitioners, researchers, policy makers and research funding bodies can engage successfully with the public, and ensure that their values and interests are taken into account, was showcased and discussed at an international workshop on 25 June 2021.

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| Av Vetenskap & Allmänhet

VA at ESOF 2020 – ensuring dialogue between science and society in challenging times

In light of the Covid-19 pandemic, dialogue between science and society is more important than ever. This year’s EuroScience Open Forum, a hybrid of in-person and online events held 2-6 September, provided a key international platform to discuss and share experiences on issues such as communicating scientific uncertainty and maintaining public trust in science.

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| Av Vetenskap & Allmänhet

Understanding the different motivations behind citizens’ involvement in life sciences research

In order to engage the public in science and design effective citizen science projects, it is important to understand the main motivations that drive individuals to engage in research. A pan-European study by the EU ORION Open Science project has revealed gender and age differences when it comes to the reasons that motivate members of the public to get involved in life sciences research.

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| Av Vetenskap & Allmänhet

Let’s talk about genome editing!

What does the public think about the new genome editing technology and how should we talk about it? In Sweden and three other European countries, the EU project ORION Open Science has organised eight citizen dialogues to find out. Here we report on the two Swedish citizen dialogues held during January and February in Stockholm.

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| Av Vetenskap & Allmänhet

Could you involve the public with your research? 

ORION Open Science has opened an exciting new funding call for co-creative research projects worth up to 100,000€. One co-creative project that brings on board a variety of different groups, such as researchers, industry, government, charities and the general public, to get involved with research from design through to completion will be funded.

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| Av Vetenskap & Allmänhet

What do Europeans think about life sciences research?

The ORION Open Science 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. The full report is now published.

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