Open Science for a sunny future in materials research

The European Project GRECO is committed to put into action practices to make scientific work more responsible, specifically those devoted to achieving open science flows where the know-how is shared among different stakeholders representing the quadruple helix of innovation: Government, Industry, Academia and Society. The ultimate objective of GRECO is to provide evidence of these knowledge coalitions and the adoption of a responsible research and innovation global approach facilitates the uptake of socially acceptable innovative solutions. GRECO has developed a model for applying these practices into an early stage research project on the integration of halide perovskites semiconductors (materials for energy conversion) into a novel design of three terminal multi-junction solar devices. 

On one hand, the Open Science approach for a research that is certainly far away from the market, has implied to accomplish mobilization and mutual learning processes in six different countries, where through a set of dynamics we have achieved a better understanding on the different stakeholders’ perception (including citizens) about emerging materials for energy conversion. In the case of halide perovskites, the question whether a heavy-metal (lead) based semiconductor could be acceptably introduced in consumer products, if safety hazards are sufficiently addressed, is one we like to gather public opinion and perception on. We will explain how we have performed such MML activities and how we have integrated conclusions of such debates into our research activity for making it more responsible, that is, for a better alignment of science funded with Public Funds to the needs, expectations and values of society.       

And on the other hand, the transition to open science is a process that can be also carried out among representatives of the same stakeholders’ group: researchers. Inevitably there is a need to reach a compromise between the ideal process and the realities of everyday life. Research work is nowadays extremely competitive and researchers have to protect their intellectual property in order to have impact and secure their future funding. Many researchers are put off by possible undesired effects of the implementation of Open Science, such as loss of competitiveness and intellectual property issues. For that reason, GRECO is developing practices that allow a more transparent, reliable and reproducible science without making European researchers less competitive. We will comment on our experience on Open Education, Open Data, Open Proposal, among others and how to utilize these as tools in improving scientific communication for the benefit of government, industry, academic researchers and society.