In this event, Professor Richard Gold will deliver a talk on how decrease in research productivity impacts on accessibility of research information and will analyse the role of Open Science Partnerships in overcoming the productivity decline.
Abstract
There is increasing evidence that research productivity is in decline, resulting not only in increased costs but in decreased accessibility. While there are multiple factors contributing to this decline, I focus on three: 1) increasing requirements to absorb knowledge; 2) the misalignment of incentives; and 3) information silos caused by reliance on intellectual property rights. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers and firms found ways to overcome these factors through rapid sharing of materials and data. This early promise gave way, however, to a return to knowledge silos, resulting in great disparities in access to both vaccines and antivirals. The early promise hints, however, at how to increase the efficiency of innovation systems. In this seminar, I examine the potential of Open Science Partnerships (OSPs) – multi-sectoral partnerships based on open data, open materials, and absence of patents – to reverse productivity declines, providing an example of an open science drug discovery ecosystem poised to proactively develop drugs for the next pandemic.
Bio
E. Richard Gold is a James McGill Professor in McGill University’s Faculty of Law, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Bieler School of the Environment. Dr. Gold brings a transdisciplinary approach to his study of innovation systems, intellectual property, and trade. Published in law, science, international relations, business, policy, and ethics journals, he draws on complexity theory, legal pluralism, and quantitative and qualitative methods to examine how legal rules operate in practice. Professor Gold has advised not only advised governments, but the World Intellectual Property Organization, the World Health Organization, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and UNITAID in advancing policy relating to innovation and access to innovation in the life sciences. He has been a key advisor to the Structural Genomics Consortium, a public-private open science partnership, and to the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital in its development of its open science policy. Most recently, he has worked on creating the Virus Interruption Medicines Initiative (VIMI) to develop an open science drug discovery ecosystem in areas of market failure.
After Professor Gold’s presentation, participants are welcome to raise their questions and take part in the Q&A session and the debate.