- Sharing knowledge is fundamental to academic research; this is typically done through the written word: reports, and conference and journal papers. However, modern research relies more and more on complex and expensive experiments or computation with in-house codes or extensive model inputs. Building upon or reproducing results is very difficult.
- Frequently, because the report, paper, or thesis is the final product of research, the code or data, which is the substance of the work, is neglected or lost at the end of the project or PhD. This is wasteful and discouraging to the researcher.
- Offshore renewable energy (ORE) is an extremely multidisciplinary field, requiring knowledge of many engineering disciplines, atmospheric and oceanic sciences, environmental science, biology, finance, human factors, and much more. No single actor or organization will have competencies in all areas.
- Studies have shown the importance of collaboration and knowledge sharing to creating a successful industry. However, traditional business practices emphasize secrecy and control. Many organizations are unwilling to share information.
OpenORE will be a platform for sharing the underlying work that goes into papers allowing others to more easily collaborate and build upon research, increasing its impact. On OpenORE, research data and code will be easily found by other users, giving the researcher a source of recognition and citations. Open Science also emphasizes that the data or code is proof of the work and so sharing it improves its quality.
OpenORE will be a hub for multidisciplinary knowledge, giving all who are interested (researchers, companies, government agencies) access to a breadth of research products as well as the researchers who created them. Furthermore, OpenORE will demonstrate the value of collaboration and instill a positive experience with collaboration in researchers, particularly in the next generation of ORE professionals embodied by members of INORE.