Tsukuba Communiqué

Introduction

We, the Science and Technology Ministers of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation, met in Tsukuba City, Ibaraki Prefecture from May 15 to 17, 2016.

We recognized that science, technology, and innovation (STI) are essential for social and economic development, and for addressing global challenges such as health, energy, agriculture and the environment. We highlighted that STI should contribute to the development of sustainable and inclusive societies

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Furthermore, we acknowledged that Open Science can change the way research and development (R&D) is undertaken, with emerging findings leading to far greater global collaboration and encouraging a much broader range of participants and stakeholders. We also recognized the importance of Open Science as a driver for greater inclusion in R&D, fo r example with the emergence of citizen science.

To address these issues, we decided that the principles of Inclusive Innovation and Open Science should be reflected within each of our specific STI areas of focus: Global Health, Gender and Human Resource Development for STI, The Future of the Seas and Oceans and Clean Energy. To have greatest impact for the bene fit of our societies, we also committed to work across G7 ministerial groups and develop our work in close collaboration with other ministries.

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6: Open Science ‐ Entering into a New Era for Science:

Putting into Practice New Framework of Research and Knowledge Discovery, Sharing, and Utilization through Openness

Open science enables broad and straightforward access to and use of the results of publicly funded research (e.g. scholarly publications and resultant data sets) not only for academics, but also the private sector and the general public mor e broadly. Fundamental to the progress of open science is the continued investment by governments and others, such as the Group on Earth Observations’ Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), in suitable infrastructures and services for data collection, analysis, preservation and dissemination. These systems and services offer a new appr oach to research, creating the possibilities for new scientific developments and increasing the returns from government investment in research. We endorsed this approach and decided to promote open science, taking in to account the particular characteristics of individual research fields.

There has been an abundance of open science practices in man y countries and organizations and in many different fields of science in recent years. We recognized a growing need to share common international principles for open science and to put these principles into practice through open access to scholarly publications and open data. Furthermore, we recognized the importance of stronger foundations for the support of open science, such as incentives for researchers and institutions, support systems and human resources. We recognize the need to promote access, taking into consideration privacy, security, and legitimate proprietary rights, and different legal and ethical regimes, as well as global economic competitiveness and other legitimate interests.

We support tak ing the following actions:

i. Establish a working group on open science with the aims of sharing open science policies, exploring supportive incentive structures, and identifying good practices for promoting increasing access to the results of publicly funded research, including scientific data and publications, coordinating as appropriate with the Or ganisation for Economic Co ‐ operation and Development (OECD) and Research Data Alliance (RDA), and other relevant groups; and

ii. Promote international coordination and collaboration to develop the appropriate technology, infrastructure, including digital networks, and human resources for the effective utilization of open science for the benefit of al.

Two attachments

– G7 follow-up workshop on mapping, coordination and joint activities in the field of NTDs and PRDs

–Recommendations – G7 expert workshop on future of the oceans and seas