Inaugural Open Science Course Teaches Best Practices

In early June, CyVerse kicked off its novel curriculum for Foundational Open Science Skills, or FOSS, a week-long summer-camp style training designed to introduce principal investigators – both new and established – to principles, technologies, and best practices for open science.

The skills taught at FOSS directly address research needs described in a Consensus Study Report on Reproducibility and Replicability in Science published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

The week on-site at CyVerse headquarters at the University of Arizona's BIO5 Institute in Tucson, Arizona, provided students with direct access to instruction from CyVerse data science experts.

“I gained a much better appreciation for what CyVerse can actually do, and I was able to see how various tools can be integrated, and how this can contribute to open science,” one attendee commented.

Participants explored topics including cloud and high-performance computing technologies, modern data science tools, open science resources, metadata management, interdisciplinary collaboration tactics, writing and implementing a data management plan to meet guidelines of the National Science Foundation’s Directorate for Biological Sciences, and more.

Students will continue to meet with CyVerse science informaticians virtually to continue lessons and receive guidance in implementing the skills they gained at FOSS with their individual research projects.

“Thank you so much for organizing this! I really hope to eventually implement something similar at my university, and hope I can attend any future workshops you organize!” said one student.

“This camp was really eye opening,” another remarked. “I had a really positive experience, and I feel that I see ways to use what I learned to improve my teaching and research.”

To learn about future trainings in foundational open sciences, container technology, and more, contact 411@cyverse.org.