Sustainability in science
Open science
Open science, based on the precept of making scientific research collaborative, transparent, and accessible to all, is rooted in SKAO’s foundational principles. A related concept is scientific reproducibility, a fundamental aspect of the scientific method since the 17th century allowing independent teams to have access to methodology and tools to be able to confirm experiments and validate results.
Open science and the application of the FAIR principles (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) is increasingly supported by funding agencies across the world. They offer a set of principles indicating how digital research objects (e.g. research data, tools, scientific workflows, configuration parameters, other digital resources and research processes) are published in a way that enables discovery, reuse and proper attribution, facilitating the reproducibility of the research and its underlying methods, hence boosting the exchange of scientific knowledge.
The SKA telescopes will produce unprecedented quantities of data, so much that the Observatory will generally not store it in its raw form, unless a specific science case requires it. Science users will instead usually access science-ready data products of their observations. The SKAO’s focus will be on enabling the reusability of these data products by providing access to them via its science archive, which will grow at the rate of 700 PB every year once the telescopes are in operation, and be accessed via the SKA Regional Centre network.
The SKA Regional Centres
The SKAO is already playing a major role in the sphere of open science. SKAO partners are adopting open science principles in the development of a federated network of SKA Regional Centres (SRCs), which will enable geographically distributed teams of researchers to collaborate. They will provide access to data, computational resources and analysis tools, while being equally accessible independent of user location and providing user support and training. Through the provision of dedicated analysis tools and workflows, the SKAO will support a diverse skills base, including and beyond the traditional radio astronomy community.
The SRC model will lead to a major shift in how science is done, from scientists separately working on downloaded data, to accessing science products on a common platform, which itself will support reproducibility. It will enable greater sharing of tools and knowledge, increase collaboration among SKAO users, and enable users to reproduce the analysis of other teams. All data products produced by the Observatory will be archived and made publicly accessible after a proprietary period to stimulate further discoveries and the verification of published results.
Sustainability is embedded in the SRCNet principles, which are guiding the development of the network. The SRCNet will aim to operate in an environmentally responsible, energy efficient manner, limiting its carbon footprint. This includes encouraging the network’s nodes to use environmentally responsible energy providers and, where possible, reporting on the fraction of reusable energy used. The SRCNet will support SKA users in writing energy efficient code, which not only requires less computing resources to run but is also tailored to the specific energy characteristics of the hardware in a particular node.
The SKAO is also adopting open science principles in its series of data challenges for the scientific community, as a way to encourage participants to embed this key concept in their methodology from the outset. This includes the awarding of reproducibility badges to teams that share their data analysis code, with the aim of encouraging knowledge sharing and the refinement of tools and processes for the wider benefit of the community.
Ensuring data and methods are accessible can also increase productivity and research visibility, facilitate innovation, accelerate knowledge transfer and return on investment, while supporting human capital development and increasing trust in science. It also offers opportunities for governments, businesses, and entrepreneurs to harness it for economic, social, and scientific gains. For instance, UNESCO highlighted how open science can play a key role in democratising knowledge generation and ensuring every scientific challenge plays a part in addressing the UN SDGs.
Making science more accessible increases collaboration and fosters partnerships. Accelerating knowledge transfer to society can support good health and wellbeing. Open science speeds up skills building through training and citizen science, hence supporting quality education. It also reduces inequalities by equalising access to scientific knowledge and supporting gender equality, ensuring results produced by female researchers are accessible and not filtered out or anonymised.
