Applying Intelligent Open Science to Combat Future Pandemics

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the potential strengths and existing weaknesses of open science practices and open data sharing to addressing urgent social and technological challenges. It was a time when pathogen genomic data was shared worldwide to characterise virus outbreaks, track the mutation and spread of the virus, and develop public health responses. However, this brought a renewed focus to the practice, incentives and infrastructures that crucially enable data sharing and reuse. In 2022, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy commissioned Research Consulting to investigate the opportunities and challenges associated with open data sharing during the pandemic. This work follows a commitment made during the UK’S G7 Presidency, as published in the G7 Research Compact, and its findings are closely aligned to those outlined in the World Health Organization’s recently published guiding principles for pathogen genome data sharing. Our talk draws on evidence base of 295 sources, the views of 24 interviewees, and insights from 18 international peer reviewers to present five key lessons that can be learnt to enable preparedness for future pandemics.