SFU initiative aims to better share data with scholars around the world [Video]

British Columbia’s Simon Fraser University is taking a nation-leading first step it hopes could help jumpstart research across Canada and around the world.

Dubbed Open Scholarship or Open Science, the concept is simple: make all academic research and data as accessible as possible to other scientists, regardless of who or where they are.

“This means, whenever possible, making it freely available for anyone to try to reproduce their work or to try to expand on their work and take it further,” said SFU vice-president of research and innovation Dugan O’Neil.

“We are trying to make sure that when we produce new knowledge it is out there and available for everyone to use.”

The initiative is being led by SFU’s Institute for Neuroscience and Neurotechnology, with the first efforts focused on sharing data in the search for brain disease cures.

Institute director and neuroscientist Randy McIntosh said part of that work is the creation of an …