What is Open Science?

Sharing knowledge accelerates innovation and advances discovery

By Jenny Burns

Science can be expensive, competitive, and challenging to share.

Research requires costly staff hours, laboratory space, and specialized materials. The first scientists to announce a discovery or advancement are more likely to secure grants, patents, and other opportunities. There are other barriers to sharing science including cloud storage costs, data formatting, and online publishing hurdles.

This image shows an Allen Institute researcher removing human iPS cell lines from liquid nitrogen storage.

Researcher pulling out cells from liquid nitrogen storage for research

We built a microscope that can image the whole brain…and then gave away the instructions for free. Why?

Open science means open for all.

In this video, we explore the Open Science movement: what it is, why it matters, and how it’s transforming research around the world.

The power and promise of open science

In recent decades, fueled by increasing global collaborations and technological advancements including the internet and cloud computing, there has been a growing movement to remove paywalls and barriers to sharing scientific data and resources to accelerate research.

This movement is called: Open Science.

Access for all

Open Science aims to make scientific resources available to everyone.

Often this includes sharing data, but it also applies to any other scientific resource including custom microscope designs, stem cell lines, machine learning algorithms, software, and more.

An Immunology researcher at work in the lab at Allen Institute HQ. — Julian Reading, Ph.D.,a scientist at Allen Institute, prepares research materials in the laboratory.

High school students learning at the Allen Institute — High school students participating in a summer learning course at the Allen Institute

Ryan Shanahan Fellow — Shanahan Fellow, Ryan Raut (right) shares neuroscience data insights with colleague, Liz Dueweke (left).

Immunology researcher at Allen Institute processing blood samples — Peter Wittig, a researcher at Allen Institute, processes blood samples for immunology research.

Leading in open science

The Allen Institute has been a leader in open science since our founding in 2003.

Open science is core to our mission and all we do at the Allen Institute. We share our science – formatted, visualized, and published to enable usability – along with software, lab protocols, cell lines, and more.

More collaboration in science through open resources leads to faster discoveries, such as treatments for diseases.

Open Science at Allen Institute