Speaker
Description
In recent years, there has been significant political and administrative interest in “Open Science”, which on one hand has lead to additional obligations but also to significant financial backing. For institutes and scientific collaborations, the funding opportunities may have brought some focus on these topics, but there is also a the significant hope, though engagement in open science infrastructure and culture, a possible multiplying effect on scientific output though the sharing of knowledge among and between scientists and citizens.
The Facility for AntiProton and Ion Research in Europe (FAIR) is a particle accelerator just outside Darmstadt in Germany, which is under final construction at a site adjacent to the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research. One of its five scientific pillars is the Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment, which is now prioritised and expected to receive its first beam in 2028. For CBM, as a leading international scientific collaboration, an active open science policy is an imperative.
In this contribution, we outline our fully-formed policy towards “Open Software” and describe how we overcame difficulties to facilitate a F.A.I.R.-level of openness. We discuss the internally controversial issue of “Open Data” and the availability to technically test data policies at the prototype experiment mini-CBM, before application to our more important physics-rich data coming from our future world-class experiment. Lastly we discuss what it means to be an “Open Collaboration” and how engagement in open science strategy within the collaboration could facilitate a plethora of new citizen science projects and help progress our research and the open science agenda.
