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Benefits of Scientific Data Sharing in the Digital Age

Explore the impact of scientific data sharing in the digital era and its potential benefits for research and innovation, using case studies like Pakistan. Learn about the challenges, opportunities, and key mechanisms for transitioning to a knowledge economy through networking, data sharing, and open access initiatives. Discover how countries can bridge the knowledge gap and drive growth by leveraging technology, innovation, and infrastructure. Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman brings insights on maximizing the potential of data sharing for global advancement.

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Benefits of Scientific Data Sharing in the Digital Age

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  1. International Scientific Data Sharing: Benefits and Opportunities Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman, FRS UNESCO Science Laureate

  2. A Connected World ! • The Digital Age --- digital divides! • An Age where Truth is Often Stranger than Fiction! • The Knowledge Explosion • New Challenges and Opportunities • Transitioning to a Knowledge Economy • A Key Factor: Networking and Data Sharing • Pakistan: A Case Study

  3. The Digital Age Death of Distance • Networking Presents New Opportunities • ICT Driving Growth Commerce Telemedicine E Governance GIS Remote Controlled Instrumentation

  4. Truth Stranger than Fiction! • Blind seeing with the Tongue • Paralysed moving wheel chairs--- with thought control • Luminescent Orchids • Metamaterials – making invisible • Stem cells

  5. Requirements for Rapid Progress • Human capital with knowledge and skills • Technology • Innovation/Entrepreneurship Infrastructure and incentives to innovate Mechanisms: Networking, Data Sharing, Knowledge generation and application 5

  6. The Knowledge Explosion • ICT serving to level out the playing field • Share of developing countries as % of world research publications increased from 20.9% to 32% • Share of developed countries declined from 84.3% to 75.3% in same period UNESCO SCIENCE REPORT 2010

  7. New Challenges and Opportunities! • Challenges: Diminishing young populations in many countries opting for research • Lack of vision in leaderships of many developing countries • Opportunities: The advent of a knowledge age • Easier to Catch up---given the political will eg. China, Korea etc.

  8. Impact of just one institution----MIT • MIT graduates and faculty have founded 4000 companies • Employ: 1.1 million people • Annual Sales: $ 240 billion • Collectively these companies are the 18th largest economy in the World!

  9. Constraints of a Developing Country Lack of a vision, strategy, action plan to transition to Knowledge Economies • Inability to Use Data due to: 1) Lack of critical mass of Quality Researchers 2) Lack of ICT Infra-structure 3) Lack of Funds for Research/Libraries 4) Lack of Incentives for Academics to publish (universities are actually community colleges)

  10. Open Access --- the New Wave! • Open Access Journals • Open Access Journal Articles • Open Access Books • Open Access Book Chapters • Open Access Lectures

  11. Open Source • MIT Open Source Materials --- A Wonderful Initiative • Apple iTunes U : Another great source of data • Host of Other Materials Freely Available on Internet

  12. Data Sharing • Telemedicine • Sharing GIS Data --- Web based GIS for sharing geographical data, E governance • International Grid: CERN calculations --- across the world! • Remote Control of Science Experiments: NMR

  13. An Example from a Developing Country: Pakistan

  14. Pakistan---An Exciting Beginning !! • My appointment as Federal Minister of Science & Technology and Federal Minister-Chairman Higher Education Commission (2000-2008) 6000% increase in budget of Science & Technology 2400% increase in budget of higher education

  15. Systematically Addressing the Constraints in Data Sharing • CONSTRAINT ONE ---- National Vision, Strategy and Action Plan

  16. Cabinet (on 19 November 2003) Entrusted Prof. Dr. Atta-ur-Rahman to Prepare a comprehensive National Development Plan – Transitioning to a Knowledge Economy 16

  17. Agriculture Textiles Leather Materials Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals Engineering Goods Electronics Energy / Power Telecommunications Information Technology Construction & Housing Transportation Strategic Industries / Technologies Areas 17

  18. Methodology • Study undertaken: PCST + PIDE • 12 Committees ( several hundred eminent scientists, engineers, planners, economists and private sector representatives) • Consultation with Federal / Provincial Ministries • Consultation with PAEC, KRL, NESCOM, SPD etc. • Intensive Brainstorming Sessions: • SWOT Analysis • Strategies Identified • Action Plan prepared in each field • Important projects for implementing the Action Plan Identified • Will need to reviewed and revised constantly 18

  19. Gaps • Technology gap Example: • Fan Industry: Korea sells 10 times more fans (with noise reduction technology) than Pakistan • Policy gap • We have ignored the paradigm shift in world trade which is towards high tech products • Innovation gap Lack of organized effort to promote innovation/ entrepreneurship 19

  20. ApproachFocus, Focus, Focus! • Prepare prioritized list of “Doable” projects in each sector • Clearly identify • What is to be done ? • Who will do it ? • Implementation timeframe ? • Human resource requirements ? • Cost of project ? • Impact on national economy ? 20

  21. Cabinet Decision Foresight Document (270 pages) Approved National Implementation Committee constituted under Prime Minister comprising relevant Ministries, eminent scientists, engineers, Secretaries and Private Sector representatives 21

  22. Systematically Addressing the Constraints in Data Sharing • CONSTRAINT Two ---- Developing Critical Mass of High Quality Researchers (developing national abilities to generate, share and utilize data)

  23. Challenge: How do we attract our brightest to Education/Research ? • Pakistan has 85 million below age 19 (54% of population) ! • Both a Challenge and an Opportunity • It is the brightest among them who must provide the leadership in all fields---education, S&T, Government • HOW ??

  24. 1)Excite young mindsabout the wonders of science ! • 2) Select and train the Brightest intop universities abroad • 3) Attract them back--- by creating an enabling environment : • Salaries • Research Funding • Access to Literature/ Instrumentation • Critical Mass—create clusters !

  25. Attracting the Brightest ! • Dramatic Change in Salary Structures/Benefits Under new “Tenure Track” system salaries of Professors raised to over US $ 5,000 per month (equal to US$ 7,000 per month after tax concessions)---five times more than Federal Ministers in Government ! Performance based system 75% Tax waiver for University Teachers (maximum 5%)

  26. Massive Foreign scholarship programs • Nearly 11,000 awarded (mostly for Europe) • World’s largest Fulbright Scholarship program for the US • Each returning scholar given access to $ 100,000 research fund with guaranteed jobs at excellent salaries on tenure track system • About US$ 1 Billion being spent on Foreign Scholarships (1500 in IT) • Indigenous PhD programs promoted

  27. Distribution of Approved Project Cost

  28. Systematically Addressing the Constraints in Data Sharing • CONSTRAINT THREE ---- Developing world class infra-structure --- the knowledge highways!

  29. Paksat 1 Ku Band C-Band

  30. Virtual University • 4 Digital Satellite (PAKSAT-1) TV Channels for content delivery (License for 2 granted) • Satellite Earth Station • 2 Recording Studios • Potential for providing high quality training in remote areas of Pakistan

  31. August 14, 2000 29 Cities

  32. Information Technology 2500 2000 2000 1500 1050 1000 580 500 29 0 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 Year Spread of Internet Services in Cities & Towns of Pakistan

  33. From 40 to 1,000 Cities on Optical Fibre (2000-2005) China 2002 Afghanistan Iran India 822 cities on the Internet SDH/PDH (525/622 Mb/s) backbone being upgraded to DWDM 10 Gb/s

  34. Internet user growth June 2000:130,000 Oct 2006: >12 million Actual users more than 20 Million! Dial up Start point Today

  35. Plummeting costs…. June 2000:US$ 87,000/E1 August 2001:US$ 6,000 October 2004 : US$ 3,800 Now US$ 950 per month/2 Mb/s ! Start point Today

  36. Communications Network---the Effect of one Good Decision! • 1992-2000, little Growth(300,000 phones) • 2001,CPP regimebrought in • Network expansion of 3 million phone-lines ordered in 2002 ! Mobilink, U-fone • Explosive growth continues till today (over 100 million phones today—hottest sector of the economy)

  37. Pakistan Education & Research Network

  38. Systematically Addressing the Constraints in Data Sharing • CONSTRAINT FOUR ---- The Contents ---- Access to Information!

  39. Digital Library • E-Journals: 25,000 full text journals • E-Books: access to over 45,000 text books and monographs --220 international publishers • MIT Mirror Web site

  40. E-Resources • Ever since its inception, Digital Library is striving hard to provide our institutions with superior quality peer-reviewed, full-text, academic and research material in the shape of e-journals as well as e-books. There are more than 75 Thousand e contents available to researchers .. Springer Link Project MUSE Cambridge Uni. Press Science Online Wiley Interscience IEEE JSTOR Ebrary McGraw-Hill Professional ISI – Web of Science Science Direct Emerald • For a complete list of e-resources please visit www.digitallibrary.edu.pk National Digital Library Program

  41. Usage Stats – An Insight • Downloads - Overall Usage National Digital Library Program

  42. International Video-lecturing Program / Distance Learning • High quality video-conferencing equipment installed • Series of international lectures (nation-wide) by top professors from leading world universities • Complete Courses Now Being Delivered: Sri Lanka, Thailand, Pakistan etc benefiting URL: http:\\111.68.111.200/moodle

  43. Video Conferencing Facility

  44. Telemedicine • Pakistan’s Telemedicine Program Initiated in 2001 • Selected Doctors Trained in USA • Proved invaluable when earthquake devastated northern areas • Over 4000 tele-consultations provided

  45. Systematically Addressing the Constraints in Data Sharing • CONSTRAINT FIVE ---- Controlling Improper Use of Available Data --- Plagiarism!

  46. National Plagiarism Policy • National Plagiarism Policy prepared and implemented • Software (“Authentcate”/”Turnitin”) provided to all universities/institutions • Plagiarism “watch dog” set up • All theses and research papers checked by universities & centrally monitored • National Archives created for all National Publications (M.Phil./Ph.D. Theses, books etc).

  47. IMPACT

  48. Increasing Access • 1947-2003 : 135,000 university students 2009 : 400,000 university students • No. of Public Sector Universities / Degree Awarding Institutes : Doubled from 59 in 2000 to 127 in 2009

  49. Results 600% in ISI abstracted publications 1000% increase in citations over last 4 years Tripling of enrolment and doubling of universities

  50. Year wise Research Output-Pakistan

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