A new open science prize has arrived on the international scholarly community stage and is causing a positive stir among global researchers and their research teams who come from a wide breadth of disciplines and fields of study.

It is “sponsored by a collaboration among the U.K.-based Wellcome Trust, the U.S. National Institutes of Health, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute” and is hugely welcomed by researchers “who are develop[ing] innovative tools and services that could unleash the power of data to advance discovery and improve health around the world”.

“It’s really bringing to light the nascent ideas that researchers are thinking about, but not necessarily put out there yet,” as per Aki MacFarlane, Programme Officer in the Open Research team with Wellcome Trust. “We’ve managed to bring some awareness to lots of things going on that we as funders and public were not aware of — which is great.”

Read the full SPARC announcement here

First-ever Open Science Prize by the Numbers:

• Six finalist projects from a field of 96 solutions proposed by applicants in 45 countries
• 4,000 votes came in from 76 countries to narrow the field from six to three
• Final winner (below) was chosen by a review committee appointed by the prize sponsors
• Grand prize award-winning team won $230,000

Open Science Prize grand prize winner:

Nextstrain

An open-source project to harness the scientific and public health potential of pathogen genome data (in real time)

Other Open Science Prize finalists:

Fruit Fly Brain Observatory

An open source platform for studying fruit fly brain function, and for investigating fruit fly brain disease models that are highly relevant to the mechanisms of human neurological and psychiatric disorders

Open Neuroimaging Laboratory

Lowering barriers to data and tools for open collaborative science of the brain

MyGene2

A portal through which families with rare genetic conditions who are interested in sharing their health and genetic information can connect with other families, clinicians, and researchers

OpenAQ

Empower communities to end air inequality through open data (in real-time)

OpenTrials FDA

Enabling better access to drug approval packages submitted to and made available by the Food and Drug Administration

Why publish Open Access?

Discover Open UBC

Open Access publishing and knowledge creation support at UBC

Above image is courtesy of National Institutes of Health (NIH)