Openness and collaboration are increasingly associated with breakthroughs in science and practice and seen as a remedy for declining scientific productivity and for addressing the grand challenges of our time. While the Open Science movement has sparked a revolution to make scientific knowledge widely available, the concept of Open Innovation in Science (OIS) more broadly encompasses inter- and transdisciplinary knowledge flows and collaborations along the entire process of generating and translating scientific research.
The Einstein Center for Neurosciences Berlin (ECN) together with the Einstein Foundation Berlin recognize the importance of applying OIS principles, methods, and tools for the progression of scientific research as well as for the optimal translation of scientific discoveries into impact that tackles current and future societal challenges.
Since innovative inter- and transdisciplinary projects in their early stages often face problems receiving financial support from established funding lines, the ECN will grant neuroscientific research projects that convincingly demonstrate why and how they will apply OIS approaches in one or more stages of the research process with the annual ECN Open Innovation in Science Award (OIS Award).
The OIS Award includes direct financial support of 15.000 EUR for selected OIS project ideas, as well as expert training and coaching for further developing and implementing them.
By doing so, the ECN
- creates an OIS playground that contributes to strengthening neuroscientists’ capabilities for applying open and collaborative practices in their research and innovation activities, and
- incubates OIS projects in the field of neuroscience.
The OIS Award is implemented in collaboration with the Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft’s Open Innovation in Science Center (LBG OIS Center), the International Graduate Program Medical Neuroscience (MedNeuro), BIH QUEST, SPARK-BIH, and Flying Health.
