The Open Access movement, which began to gather momentum in the early 2000s, is part of a larger scientific movement that aims to be far broader and open. Open Science is all about making research free and accessible to everyone. It’s about sharing data, computer code and research papers freely and immediately with the scientific community, and it feeds into public engagement and outreach in its aims to make sure that open scientific knowledge can be easily communicated with a non-expert audience.

There are tangible benefits to making science more open, and this has been recognised by the EU through including open science in the mandate of Horizon 2020. But there are still some arguments against the movement. Won’t too much unsorted information overwhelm scientists? Won’t the public misunderstand and misuse research data? Is all this transparency really such a good idea?

This session aims to address these and other arguments against Open Science and public engagement, explaining why researchers should bother with practicing and advocating for this broad movement. It will work as an introduction to two series of short courses happening during the EGU 2015 General Assembly. The first, 'Open Science goes Geo', will focus on sharing research data, scientific software and tools and on winning Horizon 2020 with Open Science. The second, ‘Public Engagement and Outreach’, will look into ways of communicating and sharing science in different ways and with different audiences.

This session will take the form of a moderated panel discussion with invited scientists with expertise in open access, open research and public engagement and outreach. Public participation will be very much encouraged and attendees will be able to query the panel during the session.

*Speakers*
Ulrich Pöschl, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry
Ivo Grigorov, Technical University of Denmark
Lorna Dawson, The James Hutton Institute
Hazel Gibson, Plymouth University
Sam Illingworth, Manchester Metropolitan University (moderator)

*Short courses in the series*
Open Science, Public Engagement and Outreach: why bother?, Monday, 13 April, 5:30–7pm TBC
Open Science goes Geo – Data, Tue, 14 Apr, 17:30-19:00 TBC
Public Engagement and Outreach – Meet the Experts – questions & answers panel , Wed, 15 Apr, 12:15-13:15 TBC
Open Science goes Geo – Software, Wed, 15 Apr, 17:30-19:00 TBC
Public Engagement and Outreach – Filmmaking , Thu, 16 Apr, 12:15-13:15 TBC
Open Science goes Geo – Beyond Data and Software, Thu, 16 Apr, 17:30-19:00 TBC
Open Science goes Geo – Winning Horizon 2020 with Open Science, Fri, 17 Apr, 8:30-10:00 TBC