1. Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)
Accelerating science, technology and innovation through Open Data and Open Science – the African Open Science Platform
Ina Smith @ismonet
Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)
IFLA Open Science Satellite Meeting: Library Services for Open Science, 21 August 2019

2. Rationale behind the African Open Science Platform

3. 4 hours between SA and one of the most deadliest infectious diseases in the world

4. Live view of airspace on 12 August 2019 – People on the move …
People on the move, connected, chances of disease spreading higher than ever before
Live view of airspace on 12 August 2019 – People on the move …

5. Congo Ebola outbreak met with rapid response after West African crisis
Government-led response to ebola outbreak included many international organisations, condcutcting research, collecting pathogen data
Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea
DAKAR - 10 May 2018: Six months after an Ebola outbreak was confirmed in West Africa in March 2014, the World Health Organization declared an international emergency and called for help. The disease went on to ravage three countries and kill over 11,000 people.  On Tuesday, Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed two cases of the viral disease. That same day, WHO helicoptered in a team of experts to the scene and released $1 million in funding.  "I think with this rapid response we will be able to contain it," WHO emergencies director for Africa, Ibrahima Soce Fall, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.  "Very clearly" the U.N. agency learned its lesson from the crisis, he added.  Ebola is endemic to Congo, a vast central African country whose eastern Ebola river gave the deadly virus its name when it was discovered there in the 1970s.  This is the ninth time Ebola has been recorded in Congo and comes less than a year after the last outbreak killed four people.  At least 17 people have died around the village near the northwestern town of Bikoro where the virus was detected this week, health officials said.  WHO is conducting an investigation to see how many people may have come in contact with the infected and is prepared to use a new experimental vaccine if needed, said Fall.  The agency was criticized for its slow response to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, which was the largest in history.  "In the past we didn't have this emergency system. It's completely different," Fall said, adding that this response was also faster than that in Congo last year.  The cases were first reported on May 3, and medical teams supported by WHO and medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) went to take samples two days later.  "That seems to me to be about as fast as you can reasonably expect," said Jimmy Whitworth, a specialist in epidemiology and public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  Whitworth said the situation was worrying, but Congo may be better prepared to detect and manage Ebola than other countries since it has had more experience.  If people exposed to the disease are identified and quarantined rapidly, it can likely be contained in an isolated area, he added.  Bikoro lies not far from the banks of the Congo River, an essential waterway for transport and commerce which runs past capital Kinshasa and Brazzaville, capital of neighbouring Congo Republic.

6. Following crisis data left continent
When the outbreak ended and organisations left the region, the data was scattered globally, not properly curated for future use during future outbreaks. Conducting research and collecting dataare expensive, and the people from whom the data were collected should also benefit from it. Fortunately a number of efforts were put in place to make the data centrally available for future purposes.

7. Copyright, gaps in data, patient consent granted – creates mistrust, and slows down the discovery process. It also impacts on funding, because if properly curated, previously collected data could have been re-used to inform future outbreaks, trends could have been established, solutions could have been found faster, new research building on existing research.
Last April, five months into the largest Ebola outbreak in history, an international group of researchers sequenced three viral genomes, sampled from patients in Guinea1. The data were made public that same month. Two months later, our group at the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, sequenced 99 more Ebola genomes, from patients at the Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone.
Uncertainties over whether the information belongs to local governments or data collectors present further barriers to sharing. So, too, does the absence of patient consent, common for data collected in emergencies — especially given the vulnerability of patients and their families to stigmatization and exploitation during outbreaks. Ebola survivors, for instance, risk being shunned because of fears that they will infect others.
Related stories
Tensions linger over discovery of coronavirus
Dreams of flu data
Nature special: Ebola outbreak
More related stories
We immediately uploaded the data to the public database GenBank (see go.nature.com/aotpbk). Our priority was to help curb the outbreak. Colleagues who had worked with us for a decade were at the front lines and in immediate danger; some later died. We were amazed by the surge of collaboration that followed. Numerous experts from diverse disciplines, including drug and vaccine developers, contacted us. We also formed unexpected alliances — for instance, with a leading evolutionary virologist, who helped us to investigate when the strain of virus causing the current outbreak arose.
The genomic data confirmed that the virus had spread from Guinea to Sierra Leone, and indicated that the outbreak was being sustained by human-to-human transmission, not contact with bats or some other carrier. They also suggested new probable routes of infection and, importantly, revealed where and how fast mutations were occurring2. This information is crucial to designing effective diagnostics, vaccines and antibody-based therapies.
What followed was three months of stasis, during which no new virus sequence information was made public (see 'Gaps in the data'). Some genomes are known to have been generated during this time from patients treated in the United States3. The number is likely to have been much larger: thousands of samples were transferred to researchers' freezers across the world.
Sources: Sequences, NCBI/virological.org; Ebola cases, WHO
Expand
In an increasingly connected world, rapid sequencing, combined with new ways to collect clinical and epidemiological data, could transform our response to outbreaks. But the power of these potentially massive data sets to combat epidemics will be realized only if the data are shared as widely and as quickly as possible. Currently, no good guidelines exist to ensure that this happens.
Speed is everything
Researchers working on outbreaks — from Ebola to West Nile virus — must agree on standards and practices that promote and reward cooperation. If these protocols are endorsed internationally, the global research community will be able to share crucial information immediately wherever and whenever an outbreak occurs.
The rapid dissemination of results during outbreaks is sporadic at best. In the case of influenza, an international consortium of researchers called GISAID established a framework for good practice in Largely thanks to this, during the 2009 H1N1 influenza outbreak, the US National Center for Biotechnology Information created a public repository that became a go-to place for the community to deposit and locate H1N1 sequence information4. By contrast, the publishing of sequence information in the early stages of the 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) outbreak in Saudi Arabia highlighted uncertainties about intellectual-property rights, and the resulting disputes hampered subsequent access to samples.
Hasan Jamali/AP
Pilgrims in Saudi Arabia try to protect themselves from Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) virus.
Sharing data is especially important and especially difficult during an outbreak. Researchers are racing against the clock. Every outbreak can mobilize a different mixture of people — depending on the microbe and location involved — bringing together communities with different norms, in wildly different places. Uncertainties over whether the information belongs to local governments or data collectors present further barriers to sharing. So, too, does the absence of patient consent, common for data collected in emergencies — especially given the vulnerability of patients and their families to stigmatization and exploitation during outbreaks. Ebola survivors, for instance, risk being shunned because of fears that they will infect others.
Nature special: Ebola outbreak
Fortunately, useful models for responsible data sharing have been developed by the broader genomics community. In 1996, at a summit held in Bermuda, the heads of the major labs involved in the Human Genome Project agreed to submit DNA sequence assemblies of 1,000 bases or more to GenBank within 24 hours of producing them5, 6. In exchange, the sequencing centres retained the right to be the first to publish findings based on their own complete data sets, by laying out their plans for analyses in 'marker' papers.
This rapid release of genomic data served the field well. New information on 30 disease genes, for instance, was published before the release of the complete human genome sequence. Since 1996, the Bermuda principles have been extended to other types of sequence data and to other fields that generate large data sets, such as metabolite research.
Guidelines for sharing
More-recent policies on data release similarly seek to align the interests of different parties, including funding agencies, data producers, data users and analysts, and scientific publishers. Since January, for example, the US National Institutes of Health has required grantees to make large-scale genomics data public by the time of publication at the latest, with earlier deadlines for some kinds of data7.
We urge those at the forefront of outbreak research to forge similar agreements, taking into account the unique circumstances of an outbreak.
First, incentives and safeguards should be created to encourage people to release their data quickly into the public domain. One possibility is to request that data users (and publishers) honour the publication intentions of data producers — the questions and analyses that they want to pursue themselves — for, say, six months. These intentions could be broadcast through several channels, including citable marker papers, disclaimer notices on data repositories such as GenBank, and online forums, such as virological.org and the EpiFlu database. Alternatively, data producers could publish an announcement about their data and their intentions on online forums as a resource that can be used by others as long as they cite the original source.
“We urge researchers working on outbreaks to embrace a culture of openness.”
Second, ethical, rigorous and standardized protocols for the collection of samples and data from patients should be established to facilitate the generation and sharing of that information. A global consortium involving the leading health and research agencies and the ministries of health of engaged nations should work together towards establishing these. Ethicists should be involved to safeguard subjects' privacy and dignity. Biosecurity experts will also be needed to address potential dual-use research and other safety concerns. A helpful analogue is the approach used by the Human Heredity and Health in Africa (H3Africa) Initiative, which aims to apply genomics to improving the health of African populations. Since August 2013, H3Africa has used standard consent-form guidelines8 for collecting DNA samples from subjects for genomic studies, regardless of their country of origin.
Toshifumi Kitamura/AFP/Getty
Quarantine officers rush to test passengers at Tokyo's Narita airport amid the 2009 swine-flu outbreak.
Lastly, any preparation for future outbreaks should include provisions for rapidly building new bridges and establishing community norms. Successful collaborations in genomics and historical data-sharing agreements have tended to involve a fairly stable group of individuals and organizations, making norms of behaviour relatively easy to establish and sustain. By contrast, outbreaks can involve a new cast of characters each time, and cases in which the pathogen is new to science call for whole new fields of research.
The Kenema way
As a first step, we call on health agencies such as the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Médecins Sans Frontières, as well as genome-sequencing centres and other research institutions, to convene a meeting this year — similar to that held in Bermuda in Attendees must include scientists, funders, ethicists, biosecurity experts, social scientists and journal editors.
We urge researchers working on outbreaks to embrace a culture of openness. For our part, we have released all our sequence data as soon as it has been generated, including that from several hundred more Ebola samples we recently received from Kenema. We have listed the research questions that we are pursuing at virological.org and through GenBank, and we plan to present our results at virological.org as we generate them, for others to weigh in on. We invite people either to join our publication, or to prepare their own while openly laying out their intentions online. We have also made clinical data for 100 patients publicly available and have incorporated these into a user-friendly data-visualization tool, Mirador, to allow others to explore the data and uncover new insights.
Kenema means 'translucent, clear like a river stream' or 'open to the public gaze'9. To honour the memory of our colleagues who died at the forefront of the Ebola outbreak, and to ensure that no future epidemic is as devastating, let's work openly in outbreaks.
Nature 518, 477–479 (26 February 2015) doi: /518477a

8. Challenges regarding Health Data
Delay in sharing pathogen data collected
Gaps in pathogen data
Lack of adherence to international standards
Uncertainty about IP rights
Can data be trusted?
Absence of patient consent
Data not FAIR
And more

9. Research Data Management
Big Data = 4IR
Require high performance computing services – fostering a culture of Open Data within National Systems of Innovation
Open Science
Research Data Management
Open Data

10. STI Strategy of Africa 2024
8 Priorities for the African research community – will be requiring data, data sharing, openness (as open possible, as closed necessary) and collaboration:
disease prevention & control;
climate resilience (disaster risk);
environmental protection (biosphere, hydrosphere);
food and nutritional security;
smart resilient cities;
achieving sustainability goals;
improved knowledge production;
improved intra-Africa research collaboration.
STISA2024

11. The Pilot African Open Science Platform

12. About AOSP Outcome of ISC “Open Data in a Big Data World”
NRF/ASSAf agreement signed on 9 Feb. 2017
October 2016 – October 2019 (3 years)
Fully funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) (SA Dept. of Science and Technology)
Directed by CODATA (ISC)
Managed by Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)
Through ASSAf hosting ISC Regional Office for Africa (ISC ROA)

13. Addressing the UN SDGs
“… Africa’s common objectives and commitment to collective actions to develop and use science and technology for the socio- economic transformation of the continent and its integration into the world economy.” - Africa Consolidated Science and Technology Plan of Action (2005)
The need and vision for more support in terms of increased continental collaboration concerning governmental data (statistics) in addressing the United Nations SDGs, have come a long way, and are also evident through numerous meetings and other strategies for the African continent. The Africa Consolidated Science and Technology Plan of Action, as early as 2005, already articulated Africa’s common objectives and commitment to collective actions to develop and use science and technology for the socio-economic transformation of the continent and its integration into the world economy.

14. UNECA Africa Regional Forum
“T[t]he creation of an African platform for research and innovation exchange will enable the dissemination of goal-relevant African research and innovation to governments and citizens. It could form the basis for linking researchers and innovators with the funding required to scale up their work. The proposed platform would showcase and share Africa’s efforts to develop goal-relevant research and innovation and could be coordinated with the Global Innovation Exchange.” – Dakar (2018)
The need and vision for technology as a force for socio-economic transformation also expands to research data, evident in a key message from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa during its Africa Regional Forum on Sustainable Development (Dakar, 2018), in which it was said that
“the creation of an African platform for research and innovation exchange will enable the dissemination of goal-relevant African research and innovation to governments and citizens. It could form the basis for linking researchers and innovators with the funding required to scale up their work. The proposed platform would showcase and share Africa’s efforts to develop goal-relevant research and innovation and could be coordinated with the Global Innovation Exchange.”

15. SGCI Statement of Principles and Actions: Social and Economic Impact of Research (2018)
“Governance, Risk Management and Compliance (GRC) participants should support and advocate for the development and use of Open Science platforms that widen access to knowledge and allow integrated problem solving at a potentially transformative (as opposed to incremental) scale. GRC participants should commit funding towards the development of the human capital necessary for leveraging the potential of Big Data, as well as invest in the infrastructure required materialising Open Science platforms.”

16. South African Commitment
“As part of its commitment to African STI cooperation, South Africa will also work to advance the open science agenda elsewhere on the continent and within regional frameworks. The strategic role of the African Open Science Platform, hosted by the Academy of Science of South Africa, which promotes African- wide development and coordination of data policies, data training and data infrastructure, will be leveraged with the support of the DST and the National Research Foundation (NRF).” – SA White Paper on Science, Technology and Innovation (2018)

17. 7 Pilot Deliverables Established an African Open Data Forum
Launched AOSP during SFSA 2016
Framework for open data policies
Framework for incentives for sharing research data
Framework for capacity building in research data
Framework & roadmap for e-Infrastructure
Landscape report on Open Data in Africa

18. Specific Highlights National Open Data Fora established in:
Botswana: Draft White Paper on Open Research Data Strategy
Madagascar: National Data Roadmap & drafting of Open Data policy
Uganda: Draft Open Data policy
South Africa: SA-EU Open Science Policy Framework & Action Plan

19. African Open Data Forum
44+ AOSP events attended by representatives from 37 African countries – funded many individuals
66+ data-intensive research initiatives identified (incl. priority disciplines)
Registry of 1,900 individuals in OS, OD, STI, ICT, IPR, HE, Funders
AOSP School of Research Data Science – Ethiopia (2019) (with CODATA & RDA)
International, Continental, National
Website
Mailing list
Webinars

20. Stakeholders mapped as an outcome of landscape study

21. AOSP (Africa) EOSC JISC (UK) (Europe) Compute ARDC (Australia) Canada
AOSP towards alignment with other continental initiatives globally
Alignment, interoperability, collaboration crucial, towards addressing SDGs
Canada
NSF (US)

22. Building on & towards … Oct 2016 – Oct 2019 Oct 2019 -
Building on Landscape Study and 5 frameworks
Towards fulfilling Vision in Future of Science and Science of the Future
Susan Veldsman will now share selected findings from the landscape study – there is many existing initiatives the future AOSP can built upon.
In the words of Cathrin Stöver, Chief Collaboration Officer, GÉANT:
"We are not building the future EOSC from scratch, but will be starting from what members of the community worked in the last years: inclusiveness is going to be critical, especially in regions whose voice has not been heard enough so far."
Oct 2016 – Oct 2019
Oct

23. Findings from the Landscape Study (2017-2018)

24. Challenges on Continent
AU 54 member countries
Challenges impacting on R&D are many
Research has to continue, regardless of many challenges, e.g. Internet shutdowns
Science more and more data-driven, relieas on connectivity, bandwidth
Internet Censorship Also experienced during recent AOSP Workshop in Ethiopia

25. Internet censorship = Form of oppression
Internet shutdowns, network and social media restrictions since in Africa since 2017 visualised on map
Source: Freedom House

26. African Investment in Science
Low levels of organisation and funding of many science systems in Africa - UNECA Sustainable Development Report
Kenya & SA closest to AUs target of investing 1% of annual GDP in R&D (Kenya & SA invest 0.8%)
R&D expenditure of 24 African countries unknown
Open Science/Open Data underpinned as part of Research/Science
Therefore necessary to understand commitment of African countries to invest in science and readiness for open science/open data

27. Political Willingness
National Academies of Science [26]
National Young Academies of Science [18]
R&D spending between 0.5%-0.8% of GDP [12]
African Science Granting Councils [15]
Incentives & recognition for sharing research data [2]
Political willingness to invest in science among AU 54 member countries
Willingness of countries to invest in science clear through their commitment to have
National Academies of Science (26)
R&D expenditure (12)
Ministries of Science/Technology/Innovation (25)
Ministries of Science/Technology/Innovation [25]
National Open Data policy & policy initiatives [5]

28. Data Concerns - Researchers
Delay in sharing data collected
Gaps in data (data lost or misplaced)
Lack of adherence to global standards
Uncertainty about IP rights, data ownership, how it was collected
Little understanding of patents, licensing, copyright
Absence of consent from participants (ethics)
Protecting privacy of research subjects in digital environment
Data not findable, accessible, interoperable, re- usable (FAIR)

29. Fear of research being scooped, misused – no authorship attribution
Lack of time, expertise, resources to share data
Data cleaning, harmonisation a lot of work – add to workload
Lack of trust on how data is managed, protected
“Never thought of sharing data – nobody asked me to”
Silo culture among researchers, institutions - competition
Data not findable, accessibly, interoperable, re-usable (FAIR)
Binding funder contracts unclear on how to curate, share data

30. Research Cultures Impacting on Data Sharing
Low awareness of importance of science, role of NRENs, benefits of data sharing
Absence of data management policies (protecting researchers & allow for data sharing)
Full disclosure of data not always possible e.g. health data
Externally funded data & data used commercially can require IP protection

31. Institutional metric & funding systems rely heavily on publishing in high impact factor publications
Data sharing not acknowledged for promotional purposes/performance appraisal – lack of incentives
Researchers want to exhaust publication possibilities before sharing data
Trust – ‘parachute’ research prevent sharing – in past African researchers were often excluded and not acknowledged for contributions to international research

32. Lack of proper infrastructure makes collaboration and data sharing impossible
Data curation is expensive, and often not covered through funder grants
Already lack of support for publishing research papers (African researchers fund own publication costs – even more so for data sharing)

33. African Research Policy/ Legislation Framework
EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has increased awareness on risks of personal data in digital world
17 African countries have adopted data protection legislation
Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) in SA
AU Convention on Cyber-security and Personal Data Protection signed by 14 African member countries; ratified by 5 African countries

34. More progress re open government data related to SDGs than open research data
Open data policies where data are regarded as “assets” e.g. Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST), Makerere University (Uganda)
Policies to:
Discourage “helicopter research”
Allow for recognition and partnership opportunities for African researchers

35. African Observatory of Science and Technology Indicators (AOSTI)
Established in 2011 (AU) to help African countries build capacity for STI policy activities and initiatives
AOSTI Report: Assessment of Scientific Production in the African Union (2005 – 2010)
Recommended “creating open and free access publication outlets for Africa, with improved review committees” – AU AOSTI (2014)
Challenge of high article publication & subscription fees

36. Progress re Open Data/Open Science Policies
Botswana – Draft White Paper on Open Research Data Strategy
Madagascar – Lobbying for Open Data policy
South Africa – White Paper on STI
Uganda – Draft Open Data Policy
Policies not aligned, harmonised (STI, IP, HE, ICT, Research)
IP protection undeveloped, ineffective, expensive, unenforced

37. Implementation of policies slow – governments change, have to start all over
African governments & institutions yet to realise power of data-driven policies
Governments & institutions not regarding data as an asset
Projects ending – often lack of contingency, sustainability, funding, political will – data services also come to an end
Data leaving continent due to lack of policies, infrastructure, trusted data repositories – changing ownership

38. Capacity Building Initiatives
NRENs providing training e.g. KENET (Kenya), CHPC (SA) – network management, blockchain, programming, data processing etc.
Training through funded projects e.g. H3ABioNet bioinformatics training & GBIF Biodiversity for Development Programme
Short courses e.g. dLAB (University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania))
Online Open Science courses e.g. Open Science MOOC, Coursera, FOSTER, MANTRA, AIMS

39. The Carpentries – trained 19 instructors from Africa, presented 110 workshops in Africa, trained 1,577 delegates from Africa
CODATA-RDA School of Research Data Science (Rwanda, 2018) – AOSP sponsored 3 participants
AOSP School of Research Data Science in collaboration with CODATA & RDA (Ethiopia, 2019) – 20+ participants

40. Development of Data Science Skills
Lack of awareness among all science stakeholders on importance of skills in data
General lack of data science skills
Challenging to build and retain pipeline of high- end ICT talent
NRENs lack full-time senior staff with both ICT & academic experience – limited business & engineering capacity
Data science training not well regulated, accredited
Data science to be included in curricula & CPD
15+ universities e.g. University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin), Pan-African University (PAU, Kenya), etc.

41. e-Infrastructure Progress
SADC Cyberinfrastructure Strategy and Action Plan in support of SADC Strategic Plan on STI & contributes to R&D, Innovation and Industrialisation pillar of Digital SADC initiative
Digital SADC 2027 – to:
develop solid information and communication technology infrastructure
addressing broadband challenges, affordable high- speed Internet
Developing human capacity and skills in ICT technologies

42. HIPSSA (Harmonization of ICT Policies in Sub- Saharan Africa – Access to Submarine Cables in West Africa – Assessment Report)
Regulation of telecom sector in collaboration with WATRA

43. e-Infrastructure Status & Challenges
National Research Education Networks (NRENs)
Lack of policy & legal recognition of many African NRENs; others endorsed by governments
Selected governments have low awareness of value of NREN – Foley (2016)
Many not operational, low/no budgets
Commercial public ISPs a threat to NRENs, while NRENs do far more than just being an ISP

44. Main challenge is unaffordability of telecoms’ pricing in many markets
Private ISPs with monopolies (Central, West Africa) close down access to cable landing stations – not allowing other competitors into market, keeping costs high

45. 18 Level 0 No NREN, no awareness Level 1
CAR, Djibouti, Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Libya
Level 1
No NREN but diffused consciousness of benefits
Angola, Comoros, Eritrea, Seychelles, South Sudan, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe
Level 2
No NREN but more structured conversation
Botswana, DRC, Malawi, Mauritius, Rwanda, Somalia, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde, Chad, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mauritania
Level 3
No NREN but formal commitment
Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Togo
Level 4
Formal NREN with services
Burundi, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Sudan, Tanzania, Côte d'Ivoire, Nigeria, Senegal, Morocco, Tunisia
Level 5
REN-REN links established
Uganda
Level 6
NREN offers REN-specific advanced services
Algeria, Egypt, Kenya, SA, Zambia (since 2019)
Status of NRENs according to Capability Maturity Model by Duncan Greaves 18

46. AfricaConnect 3 – end 2019 (aligned with Digital4Development Strategy)
GÉANT – AfricaConnect 2
AfricaConnect 3 – end 2019 (aligned with Digital4Development Strategy)
The focus of AfricaConnect3 will be to accelerate progress in the research and education process, which is in alignment with the priorities of the Digital4Development (D4D) strategy. The D4D strategy “encourages to mainstream the use of digital tools across development sectors, with a particular focus on the need to support enabling environments for the digital economy by enhancing open, affordable and secure broadband connectivity, of supporting digital literacy and skills to empower people and promote social inclusion. More specifically, it illustrates the enabling role of digital tools for education and human development.”

47. Sub-marine Cables reaching Africa up to 2018

48. 17 connected; 19 not connected
Connected Countries
ASREN - Algeria, Egypt, Lybia, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia (4 connected; 2 not yet connected)
WACREN - Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo (3 connected; 11 not yet connected)
UbuntuNet Alliance - Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe (10 connected; 6 not yet connected)
17 connected; 19 not connected

49. e-Infrastructure Status & Challenges
ICT Services & Software/Hardware/Middleware
Power outages on continent interrupting Internet service delivery
Lack of regulation, minimum guidelines
Lack of coordination of existing services & resources
Cloud services require high-speed Internet access/broadband - very expensive
Medium-scale server infrastructures only; not trusted (H3ABioNet)
Small number of computer workstations, outdated/different operating systems

50. Low awareness of free and open source software (FOSS) to collaborate and share data
High-Performance Computing (HPC) Ecosystems Project (SKA countries) – high performance compute in 8 partner countries to SA: Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zambia
Rolling out high-performance computing infrastructure within the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) African countries is an objective of the High-Performance Computing (HPC) Ecosystems Project, towards future SKA collaboration with South Africa, distributing and deploying decommissioned HPC hardware as mid-tier systems to research institutions within Africa.
Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zambia

51. African ICT Landscape
Only connected NRENs are coloured

52. OS Activities/Initiatives
‘Registered initiatives’ …..
200 OA DOAJ-listed journals
174 IRs registered on OpenDOAR
34 OA policies on ROARMAP
24 data repositories registered on re3data, while study identified 66+
1 data repository assigned CoreTrustSeal

53. SDGs and Data Initiatives
E.g. CIRAD, FAOSTAT, KAiNeT, RCMRD, CSIRSpace
E.g. AfReMaS, IODE, ODINAFRICA, SAIAB
E.g. GBIF,ReBioMa, ICRAF, CERSGIS, CGIAR, GLOSS, MASDAP, SERVIR, AMMA-CATCH, SASSCAL
E.g. H3Africa, AHRI, APHRC, GHDx, MalariaGEN
66+ data-intensive initiatives were identified by the landscape study, and mapped against the SDGs – not necessarily ‘registered’
E.g. CGKP, SAEON, RESILIENCE ATLAS, WASCAL
E.g. OHADA, DICAMES

54. e-Infrastructure Status & Challenges
Data Management (Curation)
Only one trusted registered data repository on continent (CoreTrustSeal)
Lack of centralised, secure data storage
Data repositories not registered with Registry of Research Data Repositories (re3data.org)
Data management plans not the norm, due to lack of policies/funder requirements

55. Few repositories use proper data repository software or science gateways, tailor-made for purpose, adhering to international best practise regarding persistent identifiers, metadata, licensing, IPR, data citation, archiving, and back-up of data

56. What can libraries do? Research Data Management Strategy
Policy development
Institutional, national landscape studies
Training courses e.g. MANTRA for librarians
Develop an institutional data repository – FAIR data
Develop library services:
Consultative services
Technical services

57. Cathrin Stöver, Chief Collaboration Officer, GÉANT
Similar to EOSC ….
"We are not building the future EOSC from scratch, but will be starting from what members of the community worked in the last years: inclusiveness is going to be critical, especially in regions whose voice has not been heard enough so far." -
Cathrin Stöver, Chief Collaboration Officer, GÉANT

58. Bibliography
Academy of Science of South Africa (2019), African Open Science Platform - Landscape Study. doi: Under embargo until 30 September 2019

59. Thank you!
Ina Smith Project Manager African Open Science Platform Academy of Science of South Visit AOSP