Abstract
| Open Science is a movement aimed at promoting public access to all scientific research products, without barriers or restrictions. Open Data refers to the practice of sharing research data in a way that assures that the research is accessible, reusable, and reproducible for everyone. Leveraging these two principles, scientists can validate results, and findings, conduct new research, and promote scientific progress. Open data also enables interdisciplinary collaborations and the exploration of research questions beyond the original scope of the data. The most appropriate means used for implementing Open science and open data are digital, collaborative technologies. One notable example of a platform facilitating information dissemination is Zenodo, a free virtual repository based on the CERN developed Invenio software suite. Zenodo serves as an open access and open data platform, offering researchers, scientists, and individuals a centralized, durable, reliable, scalable, free, and accessible space to share, publish, and preserve their research outputs. Zenodo provides various features and benefits that foster knowledge advancement and collaboration within the research community. By promoting open access, Zenodo enables the global dissemination of research findings, eliminating obstacles such as geographic and financial constraints. It is challenging to accurately capture the impact of scientific dissemination, both social and economic. This is particularly the case for a free, “catch-all” repository, which permits any user to supply and access non-reviewed information. This report provides a quantitative estimate of the monetary value that a virtual repository represents based on a multi-component model in which the different parts of the system are quantified using appropriate distinct methods. This study uses the virtual repository Zenodo as a reference case for the ex-ante societal impact analysis for the Future Circular Collider (FCC) at CERN, assuming that in the lifetime of such a new research infrastructure, at least one comparable development will be required due to the collaborative nature of scientific physics research with particle accelerators and colliders. Our results indicate a discounted socio-economic impact potential of about 2.8 billion CHF for an observation period of 29 years, from 2028 to 2057. |