Drug discovery project shows potential of smart openness

Commitment to sharing doesn’t mean you can’t work with industry, say Hamish Evans and colleagues

There are several ways for scientific research and innovation to have an impact on society. Different routes to impact are, however, often seen as being in tension. In particular, commercialisation and open science can sometimes seem to be mutually exclusive.

A commercialisation strategy, for example, might seek to build a path from scientific discoveries to new products, technologies or services by granting exclusive intellectual property licences to private companies. Firms might then take research and innovation forward on a for-profit basis.