How Open Science helps to improve scientific work

March 22, 2023 | Scientists at Reiner Lemoine Institute (RLI) are guided by the principles of Open Science and try to make much of their scientific work accessible. In a key issue paper, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) also supports the principle of Open Science and sees it as adding considerable value for science, industry, society and funding bodies.

Editha Kötter heads the research area Transformation of Energy Systems at the RLI. Together with Ludwig Hülk, who is responsible for open science and research data management at the RLI, she explains the advantages of the approach, the framework conditions and gives practical examples.

Open Science in one sentence. What is it all about?

Editha Kötter : Open Science (OS) is about making as many materials, tools and results of the scientific work as possible, publicly accessible.

Ludwig Hülk : The goal is to enable further use of these results in terms of content, technology, and law.

Why is that important? Where do you see the greatest strengths of OS?

Editha: Scientific work becomes more efficient because duplication of work is reduced and the subsequent use of findings is increased. This facilitates cooperation and collaboration and leverages public funding in a sustainable way. Energy transition is important now. And I think it is more important than proving yourself in traditional structures. These are unfortunately slow and make it difficult for other interested parties to build on results achieved.

We also see the success: since 2015, we have been developing the Open Energy Platform (OEP) as an infrastructure for open data and models in the energy sector. There are now many researchers collaborating effectively in numerous projects. The BMWK has recognized the relevance of OS and is developing the topic in terms of funding policy in its focus on energy system analysis. Furthermore, in its current key issues paper for this research area, the ministry calls for Open Science to become the exploitation standard where it is not excluded. OEP is to serve as the preferred repository for system analytical data and results.

Why is Open Science important and successful in energy system research in particular?

Ludwig: Energy system research is a very theoretical and data-intensive field of work. We need a large amount of different data: for example, geodata of the plants that produce electricity from renewable energies, data of the energy infrastructure, as well as technical and economic parameters. Preferably high-resolution, from the past and taking into account possible developments as assumptions for the future. In this way, we create models with different scenarios of energy systems that meet certain requirements – for example, achieving the German government’s climate targets within a certain period of time. In order to meet the high political and societal requirements, a great deal of transparency and reproducibility is necessary in addition to valid scientific findings. Open Science is the most suitable way to achieve this.

Can you give an example?

Editha: We developed an online tool for Agora Energiewende that uses various geodata to find potential areas for wind turbines or open spaces for photovoltaics. We published the associated data package – a total of around 700 megabytes as open data. Planning offices and project developers can now continue to work with this data. With the help of the data, they can vary conditions in their work, such as distances between wind turbines and settlements, or they can include the use of forest and landscape conservation areas in their planning. Each and every one of them does not have to go to great lengths to obtain the data themselves. We have already done this for the whole of Germany. This is also a way to accelerate the energy turnaround.

How did the OS approach come about at RLI and how has the topic developed?

Editha: At RLI, we decided early to model energy systems according to the principle of open source and open science. Our former head of research Berit Müller has been pushing for this since the RLI was founded in 2010 – against a lot of skepticism and resistance. Ten years ago, there were hardly any research institutions outside RLI that were willing to make computational models or data public on a large scale – even though they were publicly funded. Instead of waiting for others to move, we decided to act ourselves.

What have you done specifically?

Editha: As early as 2012, the first doctoral theses started at RLI with the principle of open source and open science, as well as the co-founding of the openmod initiative as an exchange forum. RLI was also involved in developing the Open Energy Modeling Framework (oemof). An open source tool used to model and analyze various energy systems, it is now used in many research projects worldwide. Then in 2015, the collaborative project open_eGo added the OEP as well as an open tool for grid analysis.

Ludwig: The OEP provides substantial infrastructure for research data. We develop and operate the platform together with partner organizations such as Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, the Öko-Institut and many other institutes. All data there is provided with an open license and allows further use by third parties. Since 2020, we have been building the Open Energy Family around the OEP as a collaborative framework with data and tools for managing research data. Since March 2023, we have the opportunity to integrate these tools and infrastructure into the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI) in the project NFDI4Energy. We have been doing this for a very long time and with a lot of commitment.

What role does Open Science play in the energy transition and for the goal of 100 % renewable energies?

Editha: The findings on the effects of climate change are not new, and researchers around the world are working on solutions for the energy transition. We have been actively involved with applied research for 13 years at RLI. In the principle of OS, we see the necessary innovation potential that has perhaps been missing in the past decades to accelerate the process. OS causes an opening of science as a whole and this also enables more participation of society, for example through more transparency, participation and cooperation in the topic of energy transition. Climate change and the energy transition are tasks we can only solve together. That is why we need to open up science even more.

Ludwig: Open science does mean extra work in some places in already demanding and stressful daily lives of researchers, but the work is fundamentally in line with the requirements of good scientific practice and the social obligations of our field. We will continue on this path in the coming decades and live up to our pioneering role in Open Science in energy system research.