On July 12, 2013 a visiting expert Mario Cervantes will deliver a workshop on “Open Science: Policies and Impact” at the National Research University — Higher School of Economics (HSE). The event is organised by the HSE Research Laboratory for Science and Technology Studies.

Mario Cervantes is Senior Economist at the Country Studies and Outlook Division, Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry at Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Paris. In particular, he is responsible for the Working Group on Innovation and Technology Policy (TIP).

With more than 15 years of experience in innovation policy, Mr. Cervantes has written on a range of topics from industry-science relations, human resources in S&T, technology incubators, academic patenting and licensing, open innovation and globalisation of R&D and, more recently, on innovation for social challenges. Current activities include the system innovation, strategic public-private partnerships in STI and open science for innovation. A graduate of Columbia University (MA international economics), the University of California at Santa Barbara (BA economics and political science) and the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), Mr. Cervantes has also studied at the Berkman Center, Harvard Law School, where he obtained a certificate in internet law, and was a Sloan Fellow in public policy at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Prior to joining OECD, Mr. Cervantes worked as a researcher at the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) at the Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, New York.

Summary of the presentation:

The basic model for the dissemination of government-funded research results continuously relies on scientific journals. This model has been challenged by the arrival of internet-based publishing and the ease of which information can be copied and duplicated. But just as there are arguments in favour of more openness in science there are many questions concerning the risks and trade-offs in terms of quality, security and so forth. Open does not mean “free” and there are both opportunity costs and large financial investments required to make scientific articles and data more open. While the benefits of greater openness in science may outweigh the costs in the longer term, policy must be ready to adapt and even anticipate changes in technology and in the needs of the creators and users of publicly funded research. The workshop highlights policy approaches to open science and discusses the impacts of policy interventions.

Venue: Higher School of Economics, room 513, 20 Myasnitskaya Street, Moscow.

Start time: 15:00.

Working language: English.

Everyone interested is welcome to attend!

If you need a pass to the HSE, please notify Olga Maximova on your participation prior to 17:30 the day before the event via e-mail: ovmaximova@hse.ru or by phone (495) 772-95-90 (ext. 11715).