Workshop 'Research agenda, Social needs and Open science’ organized by CSIR-NIScPR, India | 10 Dec 2022 | National Institute of Science Communication & Policy Research

"...Dr. Ismael Rafols, UNESCO Chair, Diversity and Inclusion in Global Science Centre for Science and Technology Strategies (CWTS), Leiden University, Netherlands delivered the keynote address. Dr. Rafols reinforced UNESCO recommendation of diverse and inclusive matter for research agenda for benefit of whole human kind. He brought forth the usual notion that research agenda tends to favour elite and rich though not universal but true to a greater extent. He justified his argument by describing concentration of research in global north, being driven by market demands and incentivized by few narrow academic goals and social groups. Dr. Rafols highlighted that research agendas are not in sync with SDG goals in higher and middle income countries. Evidence indicates better alignment in least developing countries of research with SDGs. He emphasized upon the need for more open access to science and having more open infrastructure so that maximum benefit can be achieved by mankind. He concluded by highlighting need for inclusion of citizen in sciences to lessen the misalignment. ... Dr. Vivek Kumar Singh, Professor and Head of the Computer Science Department, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi provided an overview of open access and its various forms, such as Gold, Platinum, and Diamond open access. He highlighted the open archive available at India such as the IndiaRxiv, eprints by the Indian Institute of Science, Krishikosh by the ICAR etc. Dr. Singh correctly emphasized the need for making research accessible to society because there is a gap in knowledge access in India, and we need to seek for effective policy implementation to address this. Dr. Kavita Shah, Professor, Purdue University, USA gave a brief insight of the changing environment she has been observing in India now. The infrastructure, and support to research and many institutions now are in India which is bringing a positive change for doing high end research. She felt that this opportunity calls for students and researchers to make their research more aligned to the challenges faced by the society...."