Opening the Way for Open Source: New Scientific Collaborations for Neglected Disease R&D
R4D’s Center for Global Health R&D Policy Assessment is pleased to present its draft “Open Source for Neglected Diseases: Challenges and Opportunities” for public consultation. The draft landscaping report is open for public review and comment until March 4, 2011. The Center’s mission is to expand and improve the information used by governments, philanthropists and private investors to make decisions on new ways to drive research and development (R&D) in global health.
As a part of a series of policy papers examining proposals to accelerate R&D for diseases primarily affecting the poor, “Open Source for Neglected Diseases: Challenges and Opportunities” explores how the traditional advantages of open source models, such as lowering costs, fostering collaboration and building a knowledge commons, apply to global health R&D and provides an overview of existing research initiatives.
The paper also highlights some of the advantages and challenges that these programs face and includes suggestions from program leaders of how to expand open source work in global health. The authors discuss the need for further analysis of how open source principles could be used to overcome bottlenecks in global health R&D and identify practical steps to bring the open source community together.
