In October 2013, the Open Knowledge Foundation awarded 3 Panton Fellowships. These Fellowships are awarded to researchers who actively promote open data in all areas of science and research and will run from Oct 2013 – Sept 2014.
Left to right: Sam Moore, Peter Kraker and Rosie Graves
Over the next year, Sam will be working on open data in humanities and social sciences, Peter will be looking at transparent and reproducible altmetrics and expanding the open community, while Rosie will be monitoring air quality in local primary schools and publishing this openly as part of an outreach project. All three are regularly blogging on the open science working group blog.
Recipients of a Panton Fellowship are provided with a small stipend and travel funds, enabling them to develop and carry out their own work plan, developing activities in accordance with the Panton Principles. The Panton Principles, formulated in 2009, encourage scientists to put scientific data in the public domain. Science is based on reusing, criticising and building on the published body of scientific knowledge. For science to function effectively, it is crucial that scientific data is open: i.e. free to use, reuse, and redistribute. The Open Knowledge Foundation anticipates that these activities might include:
- Promoting the concept of open data in all areas of science
- Exploring practical solutions for making data open
- Facilitating discussions surrounding the role and value of openness
- Catalysing the open community, and reach out beyond its traditional core
Our 2013/2014 Panton Fellows have been funded by the Computer and Communications Industry Association and applications were assessed by the Panton Fellowships Advisory Board. Regrettably in 2013/2014 we were only able to offer Fellowships to those who held a valid EU passport. We hope to remove this restriction in future rounds, although are unable to commit to this at present.
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