Virtual Symposia

Wednesday, April 19 |
8 am BST | 5 pm AEST | 3 am EDT
Reducing Research Waste Across Sciences
Abstract

This symposium will address the issue of research waste and potential solutions to it. Research waste is all the research with a limited or no informative value. So far it has been quantified for two broad research fields: 85% of research is wasted in medicine, and 82-89% in ecology. Obviously, research waste drastically reduces effectiveness and impact of funded and conducted research. This means that we not only lose valuable knowledge, but also waste funds (e.g. estimated US$170 billion/year in medicine). Research waste is a complex problem caused by suboptimal research, funding, and publishing practices, including the current incentives and support system in science. Consequently, solving the issue of research waste requires a coordinated action between researchers, research institutions, funders, and publishers.

The symposium will bring this multitude of stakeholders, both in the panel and the audience, together. We will start by two short presentations of what is currently known about research waste, followed by a panel discussion. Panelists (6-8 across disciplines and stakeholders groups) will discuss questions and topics prepared by the Organizers, and those coming from the audience. The prepared questions and topics will be set up with an overall goal to evaluate the need for more research on research waste across scientific fields, on actions by funders, journals, and researchers to decrease research waste, and finally, evaluation of the added value of these actions. Symposium will also serve as a stepping stone for a series of future events (forums, discussions etc.) aimed at reducing research waste.

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