Öppenhet och Bill Gates

Bill Gates förordar … open source. Fast då inte i mjukvarubranschen, utan i AIDSforskningen:

Yesterday, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it would require that any researcher who accepts its grant monies for HIV/AIDS research will have to agree to share their scientific findings. The Gate Foundation was apparently frustrated that two decades of secrecy and competition among AIDS researchers have impeded efforts to come up with an AIDS vaccine. Scientists often decline to share their research because they are trying to obtain patents, withhold data until it is published, or simply protect their institutional turf.

But that’s not the best way to develop an AIDS vaccine, according to Nick Hellmann, the interim director of HIV projects at the Gates Foundation. The best research strategy is one that fosters an open, sharing environment. Says Hellmann: “There have to be better networks and collaborations [among HIV/AIDS researchers]. So we require all grantees to collaborate across a spectrum of grants.”

Läs mer på On the Commons. [via Open Access News.]

Ur ett pressmeddelande från Gates Foundation:

As a condition for receiving funding, the newly-funded vaccine discovery consortia have agreed to use the central facilities to test vaccine candidates, share information with other investigators, and compare results using standardized benchmarks […] “These grants signal an exciting move toward greater cooperation, coordination, and transparency among vaccine scientists,” said Mitchell Warren, executive director of the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition (AVAC). “AIDS vaccine advocates have long said that this type of work is critical to accelerating work in the field, and this is an energizing time.”

In addition, the grantees are developing global access plans to help ensure that their discoveries will be accessible and affordable for developing countries, where the vast majority of new HIV infections occur.

I Sverige tycks utvecklingen gå åt andra hållet. Svensk forskningspolitik handlar idag mycket om kommersialisering och patentering; forskningspolitiken har blivit en förtäckt regional- och industripolitik. Det talas mycket om möjligheter att införa olika slags sekretessprocesser för att skydda svenska lärosätes ekonomiska intressen när det gäller att kommersialisera och patentera vetenskapliga resultat. Risken är att man då får inlåsningseffekter liknande de som i citatet ovan identifieras av Gates Foundation.