SciOS: Advancing Open Science Infrastructure

SciOS: Advancing Open Science Infrastructure#

Mission and Core Objectives#

SciOS is a collaborative organization with a mission to “advance infrastructure” for the scientific community. Its core objective is to coordinate people and organizations in building sustainable scientific infrastructure, “coordination layers, and operating systems for the scientific endeavor”.

Key Projects and Programs#

While still a young organization, SciOS has launched and supported several projects and events.

SciOS Workshops#

SciOS Workshops are structured, outcome-focused gatherings that aim to improve the infrastructure and coordination mechanisms supporting open science. These workshops bring together researchers, engineers, and stakeholders from various disciplines to address challenges related to scientific data management, reproducibility, collaboration, and technology adoption. Rather than traditional academic conferences, SciOS Workshops focus on practical development, where participants work on defining problems, building prototype solutions, and refining approaches for more effective scientific workflows.

One of the primary goals of these workshops is to facilitate cross-disciplinary collaboration between open-science communities, developers, and institutions working on decentralized research tools, FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data standards, and open source infrastructure. The workshops typically produce tangible outputs, such as frameworks, protocols, or software tools, rather than reports or policy recommendations. The 2024 workshop series, titled “Science Needs a Firmware Update”, was part of the broader DeSci Summit and focused on identifying technical and cultural barriers to more open and reproducible research practices. By convening participants from both academic and technology backgrounds, SciOS Workshops aim to bridge gaps in the scientific ecosystem and accelerate the development of shared infrastructure for modern research.

Supported projects#

  • Automating Metadata: Developing tools to streamline the generation and management of research metadata.

  • Research Assessment: Creating frameworks to evaluate research outputs more effectively.

  • Open Source Permanent Versionable Containers and Attestation Platform: Building a platform for secure, version-controlled research environments.

  • Open Source Security Dashboard: Enhancing the security of open source scientific tools and infrastructure.

  • Project Interop: Seeks to implement FAIR principles across industry and academia.

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