WHAT IS OPEN HARDWARE ?
From microscopes to microfluidics and water quality test equipment, hardware is a vital part of science. Advances in instrumentation have been central to scientific revolutions and access to hardware shapes the work of communities conducting research globally on a daily basis. However, the current supply chain for science hardware limits access for many groups of people and impedes creativity and customisation. Open Science Hardware (OScH) means sharing designs for scientific hardware openly online that anyone is freely able to use, modify and even commercialize. This approach could drastically reduce the costs of research while enabling people to collaborate and learn in new ways.
WHAT IS GOSH ?
The Global Open Science Hardware community supports OScH by convening meetings such as the Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH), publications, activities and providing a forum for the community. GOSH 2016 convened 60 members of the Open Science Hardware community at CERN in Geneva, highlighting commonalities in approach and leading to publication of the GOSH Manifesto. During GOSH 2017 the community was cemented in Santiago de Chile and we broadened connections between researchers globally through completion of a Roadmap for making Open Science Hardware ubiquitous by 2025. At GOSH 2018 in Shenzhen, China the community pledged to over 150 actions focused on pursuing our shared goals and vision of open, scientific technologies.
We encourage anyone with an interest in making or using OScH to join the community through the forum, in-person events and many activities taking place online. During 2019 and beyond we aim to bring science to new places both in and outside professional labs, democratizing research and discussions about the value of research through policy and action. We will support our members, many of whom are outside of formal institutions, to scale our collective impact. Examples of our activities include mapping useful tools, resources and people in OScH to maximise the visibility and use of existing initiatives; reaching out to new communities and members; increasing connections between scientific and on-the-ground communities that are already engaged in using science to address issues such as environmental pollution.