Nathan Anderson (CC BY-SA 4.0)
We are delighted to announce that we have partnered with the Digital Research Alliance of Canada (the Alliance) and the Catalyst Project to deliver two tracks as part of OLS’s Open Seeds program, OLS-9.
We are proud to share that the Digital Research Alliance Canada has contracted OLS to offer a full cohort to EDIA-focused grantees based in Canada. The DRI EDIA Champions Pilot Program aims to increase awareness and uptake of the Alliance’s digital research infrastructure (DRI) by equity, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) champions across Canadian institutions.
Project leads/mentees in the “OLS-9 DRI EDIA Track” will be fellows selected under the DRI EDIA Champions Program. Malvika Sharan will lead the delivery of this track. She will be joined by a Resident Fellow, Seun Olufemi.
As part of OLS’s involvement in the Catalyst Project, the “OLS-9 Catalyst Track” will be offered to the Catalyst community. This initiative aims to support the adoption of open science principles in underserved biomedical research communities by providing reliable and sustainable cloud computing infrastructure. Funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), Catalyst is a collaboration among seven organizations (read details) covering a range of open science skills and expertise.
The project leads/mentees in the ‘OLS-9 Catalyst Track’ will be representatives from communities from African and Latin American organizations onboarded in the Catalyst project. Tajudeen (Taj) Gwadabe will lead the delivery of this track.
Previously, the OLS team offered Open Seeds through an open call for applications, inviting submissions from a broad network of researchers and contributors involved in open science in various capacities. This time, the Open Seeds’ OLS-9 program is funded and hence, delivered to target audience under specific projects, namely the Alliance’s DRI-EDIA Pilot Program and Catalyst Project.
The broader OLS community will remain instrumental to the success of this cohort, with speakers, mentors, and facilitators invited through an open call.
Since the CZI core funding that supported the last four cohorts, from OLS-5 to OLS-8, has now concluded, this change represents a step toward exploring sustainable funding models for OLS to offer Open Seeds as a service.
The OLS-9 cohort will be delivered using a mixed funding model: contract-based ‘OLS-9 DRI-EDIA Track’ and grant-based ‘OLS-9 Catalyst Track’.
To sustain OLS’s operations and funding requirements in the long term, it is crucial for us to improve our business model. We deeply appreciate the support and advice we have received in this direction from our Governance Advisory Committee and community members more broadly.
Going forward, we will continue to explore stable funding or revenue streams through which Open Seeds can be offered. As trialed in OLS-9, future cohort plans will involve service-based contracts or grants, and will be delivered to specific groups of audiences as planned for OLS-9, or more broadly, as with previous cohorts.
A full in-house cohort for a high-income country-based organization typically costs around $200,000 USD. This supports up to 45 mentors, 30 speakers, and 45 teams/individual mentees, as well as participation costs for microgrants for participants in lower/middle-income settings. It also includes salaries for staff managing and delivering the program.
As previously announced OLS has received a grant from NASA to support the delivery of the 5-week Nebula program until 2026. This program will be open to all, with some seats reserved specifically for NASA researchers and partners.
Our community members will play a vital role as speakers, mentors, experts, and facilitators in both the Open Seeds and Nebula programs. Additionally, we are exploring new opportunities, such as Resident Fellowships and Advisory Committees, to foster deeper engagement within our community.
Despite these necessary changes, our commitment remains unwavering: we will continue to provide access to our training and resources for underrepresented groups and marginalized communities, including individuals and groups in low- and middle-income countries. As always, we will ensure that all training materials are shared openly. These resources will be available to anyone interested in learning about open science, training others in open practices, or leading training programs using OLS resources and cohort-based models.
Have plans for a future Cohort of Open Seeds or want to discuss an idea for collaboration/partnership?
Contact [team, Yo, or Malvika]@we-are-ols.org to discuss options.