Developing open science in Africa : barriers, solutions and opportunities

African science systems largely operate independently of each other, creating siloes of incompatible policies, practices and data sets that are not mutually consistent or inter-operable. The paper argues for the development of open science in Africa as a means of energizing national science systems. It focuses on the complexity of social and economic challenges created by climate change, the demographic explosion, and the difficulty of confronting these conditions in the absence of an adequate digital infrastructure. The paper draws on questionnaire data from 15 African Science Granting Councils and the state-of-the-art report “Open Science in Research and Innovation for Development in Africa.”Swedish International Development Cooperation AgencyDepartment for International Development (UK)National Research Foundation (South Africa