The 2023 International Data Week (IDW 2023) reached a successful conclusion in Salzburg, Austria, in late October 2023. This international event celebrated as an inclusive “Festival of Data”, received joint support from the International Science Council’s Committee on Data (CODATA), the World Data System (WDS), and the Research Data Alliance (RDA). Worldwide representatives joined the conversation, bringing together diverse communities, including data scientists, domain researchers, industry leaders, entrepreneurs, and policymakers.

Delegates of the Global Open Science Cloud (GOSC)Initiative have co-organized two parallel sessions during this fascinating event. One of these sessions that attracted worldwide attention was “Interoperability and Interconnectivity in Developing Open Science Infrastructures.” Supported by the GOSC Technical Infrastructure Working Group, this session invited representatives from Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Ocean to share their perspectives on open science research infrastructures and platforms, including the African Open Science Platform (AOSP), the China Science and Technology Cloud (CSTCloud), the Japan National Institute of Informatics (NII), and the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC). The discussions highlighted the urgency of establishing a more extensive international cooperation network to achieve interoperability and interconnectivity. Consensus has been reached to harness emerging digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence, to unleash the potential of data and advance the development of open science infrastructures.

Another session, titled “Open Data and Open Service for Disaster Risk Reduction,” was co-hosted by the GOSC Policy and Governance Working Group and the Integrated Research on Disaster Risk (IRDR) International Programme Office (IPO). Included as the IDW 2023 key highlights, this session explores global data collaborations to address challenges outlined in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The discussions primarily focused on UNDRR/ISC hazard information profiles, data services and applications supporting disaster reduction, computational challenges for cross-domain SDG-13 events, and regional showcases of the GOSC SDG-13 case study. During the session, the importance of collaboratively establishing a trust mechanism for the enhanced utilization of open data and open science was highlighted as an approach to mitigate the societal and human impacts of disasters.

Undoubtedly, this event provided a valuable opportunity for attendees worldwide to gain insights into the GOSC Initiative and its progress. Moreover, the in-person gathering bolstered trust among participants and fostered potential collaborations. We are eager for more engagement in global dialogues to strengthen our commitment to the open exchange of knowledge and data (Xueting Li, Lili Zhang). 

GOSC TI Session

GOSC PL Session

More updates regarding the IDW 2023 is available at: https://internationaldataweek.org/idw2023/

Please stay tuned at: https://bit.ly/3jwZHNg

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