“Enhancing Public Engagement and Knowledge Equity” Insights from the Erasmus+ OPEN-ASIA (Reference no – 101128493) Capacity Building Workshop 2 at Vrije University, Amsterdam

Dr. Mayank Joshipura (Associate Dean-Research, SBM, SVKM’s NMIMS,) and Dr. Jayakumar Singh Bondili (Dean, SDSoS, SVKM’s NMIMS) participated in the capacity building workshop conducted by Virje University (VU), Amsterdam, Netherlands from 17^th to 21^st June, 2024. The workshop was coordinated by Dr. Marjolein Zweekhorst (Professor, Faculty of Science, Athena Institute, VU) and Dr. Sarju Sing Rai (Assistant Professor, Faculty of Science, Athena Institute, VU).

The capacity building workshop 2 (CBW2) focused on “Public Engagement via Science Shop and Community Service Learning” was organized as a part of the OPEN-ASIA project co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union. The participating organizations included SVKM’s NMIMS (India), University of Malaya (Malaysia), University Malaysia Sabah (Malaysia), University Malaysia Sarawak (Malaysia), International School for Social and Business Studies (Slovenia) and institutions from Botswana and Zambia from OSCAR 2.0 project.

The five-day workshop focused on major theme of enhancing public engagement in science including science shops, community service learning, citizen science and knowledge equity. The quality of discussions was enhanced by participation of African institutions under OSCAR 2.0 institutions as it helped understand the open science initiatives and progress in Africa.

1^st day kick-started by welcome address by Dr. Jacqueline Broerse (Drector, Athena Institute, VU) and Dr. Marjolein Zweekhorst followed by brief presentations from participating institutions. Dr. Joshipura made presentation on NMIMS University and highlighted the University’s contributions toward open science focusing on WeCare (Community Service Learning), Ground water recharge project in Shirpur (Shirpur Pattern), open science knowledge shared by NMIMS in form of downloadable books and open access journal. The 2^nd half focused on the Science Shop presentation by VU and workshop on science shop to build institutional vision and implementation of science shop at participating institutions.

2nd day started with presentation on Science Shop by VU followed by presentations from participating institutions and to learn from best practices from other institutions. The 2nd half included presentations from European Universities on International learning lab, sharing their experiences on public engagement through community service learning including. Karsten Altenschmidt,(UNIKTIV, Germany),  Geertje Tijsma (VU, Netherlands), Nataša Matulayová (UPOL, Czech Republic), Avril Lombardi Bolaño & Janaina de Oliveir (URV, Spain).

3^rd day focused on role of libraries in open science with presentation by VU library and the 2^nd half the participants visited public library to participate in “Science with Society Festival” fousing on conversations between citizens, students, scientists, community partners and policy makers. Dr. Joshipura participated in “energy transition’ whereas Dr. Bondili participated in “mental health” conversations.

4th day was dedicated to Knowledge Equity Symposium with presentations by experts and series of panel discussion on Knowledge Equity in Education and research. It started with informal welcome by Marjolein Zweekhorst and Sander Bosch followed by formal welcome speech by Miranda van Holland (VU). Dr. Cees Hamelink, Professor Emirates (VU) delivered keynote address on Knowledge equity. Dr Pius Mosima (Cameroon) , Sandra Hasanefendic (VU), Natasa Matulayova (Czechia), Dr Clement Dr Niyerenda (South Africa) shared their experiences on  knowledge equity and research followed by short presentations by Victor de Boer (VU), Amrita Das (VU), Michele Meijer (VU), Prof Maurice Crul (VU). Dr. Masood (Leeds) presented Knowledge Equity network followed by panel discussion on Role of Libraries in Koowledge Equity including Hilde van Wijngaarden (VU), Masud Kokhar (Leeds), Shirlene Neerputh (UWC) as panellists.   Dr. Bondili participated as a panelist one of the panel discussions on Knowledge Equity along with participants from three other participants from OSCAR 2.0 and Open Asia project institutions.

5^th day started with institutional science shop plans. Dr. Joshipura and Dr. Bondili presented plan to build upon Wecare (community service engagement) and make it interdisciplinary, focusing on transdisciplinary approach to research focusing on transdisciplinary research units/clusters focusing on issues facing business, society and environment. The 2^nd half was about students’ poster presentations on science shop projects.

Beside the workshop, VU arranged for a forest walk (17^th evening), boat city tour (19^th evening) and interactive play at public library (20^th afternoon) which offered networking opportunity and informal interactions.

Overall, the five-day workshop focused on open engagement of social actors through initiatives such as science shops, community service learning, knowledge equity and role of libraries. We established connections with participating institutions from Open Asia, OSCAR 2.0 and speakers from European region. These connections will help us setting up data management plan and data repository, exchanging best practices in community service learning and open science, offering interdisciplinary course linked to community service learning with the help of VU in select schools such as School of Science, attracting international Ph.D. students and fostering research collaborations. Dr. Mayank Joshipura and Dr. Jayakumar have already joined Knowledge Equity Network in their individual capacity and identifying research units for cluster-based research and incorporating data management plan for faculty and doctoral scholars is initiated and it is included in University Ethics code as well as Ph.D. programme course work in subject titled “Research and Publication Ethics”.