Science without paywalls is not a nice-to-have but the engine of innovation, economic growth, and planetary survival, Kamila Markram, CEO of science platform Frontiers, argues in her DLD26 conversation with journalist Jennifer Schenker (The Innovator).
Markram traces the founding of Frontiers back to frustration with a system where she had to “buy my own research paper with my own credit card” – even though that research had been publicly funded. “At that time it dawned on me that if I can’t have access my own research, publicly funded research with taxpayers’ money, what about other researchers?”, she recalls.
The COVID pandemic is one of many “amazing examples that show the power of open science”, Markram argues. “The moment when the genetic sequence of the coronavirus was shared, labs across the entire world started racing for the vaccine.” This was only possible because the insights were immediately available and widely shared.
But there has been a troubling regression: “By 2020, all the coronavirus research was openly accessible”, Markram notes. Today, at least half is back behind paywalls. “So I would say the fight is not over. We have to keep on showing how important open science is.”
Watch the video to explore this talk in detail.
