Open Science (incl. Open Data) – according to Foster – “is the practice of science in such a way that others can collaborate and contribute, where research data, lab notes and other research processes are freely available, under terms that enable reuse, redistribution and reproduction of the research and its underlying data and methods.”

An initiative to better understand what is happening on the African continent, and to promote the value and exploit the potential of specifically Open Data, was initiated and announced by the SA Minister of Science and Technology, Mrs Naledi Pandor, at the Science Forum South Africa (SFSA) 2016. This project (2017-2019) – the African Open Science Platform – was a three year project funded by the SA National Research Foundation (NRF), directed by CODATA, and managed by the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf). The four focus areas that were explored during this project included the following: Open Science policy, Infrastructure in support of Open Science, Skills required and building capacity in support of Open Science, and Incentives for sharing science and data. The deliverables for this project included creating awareness about the importance of Open Science and Open Data, as well as frameworks applied to the various focus areas. The outcome of this project was a landscape study, which can be accessed here.