Hewlett Foundation and Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s Join ORFG
The Open Research Funders Group (ORFG) is excited to welcome its two newest members, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and Aligning Science Across Parkinson’s (ASAP). The addition of these two prominent philanthropies underscores the growing momentum to make research more open, equitable, and trustworthy. Both organizations view open research as an important catalyst in service of their ambitious missions.
For more than 50 years, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has supported efforts to advance education for all, preserve the environment, improve lives and livelihoods in developing countries, promote the health and economic well-being of women, support vibrant performing arts, strengthen Bay Area communities and make the philanthropy sector more effective. Embedded within this work has been a longtime commitment to openness and transparency, including support for open licensing, grant policies that require the open sharing of outputs, and ongoing grantmaking to advance the open education field.
“We are delighted to broaden our partnerships by joining this vibrant community of funders. We share their commitment to open research and open practice, and are excited to continue learning how best we can support the field together,” said Angela DeBarger, Hewlett Foundation Program Officer.
Launched in 2019, ASAP is a coordinated research initiative devoted to accelerating the pace of discovery and informing the path to a cure for Parkinson's disease through collaboration, research-enabling resources, and data sharing. In practice, this has spurred ASAP to create a comprehensive open policy, encompassing open access to published articles under CC BY licensing; preprint deposits; open data, code, and protocol sharing; and tracking of research output impacts via a dedicated grantee platform.
“We are very pleased to be joining the growing coalition of funders standing together to advance open science,” said Dr. Ekemini Riley, Managing Director of ASAP. “If we are to tackle complicated health challenges like Parkinson’s, we need to promote better collaboration, broader research transparency, and a shared commitment to the rapid and open sharing of a range of research outputs. The ORFG and its members are leaders in this movement, and we are excited to contribute our expertise and thought leadership to the cause.”
About the Open Research Funders Group
The Open Research Funders Group, a partnership of leading philanthropic organizations committed to the open sharing of research outputs. The ORFG believes open is better for philanthropy, better for science, and better for society. Collectively, ORFG members hold assets in excess of $100 billion, with total annual giving in the $10 billion range. Members’ interests span the entirety of the disciplinary spectrum, including life sciences, physical sciences, social sciences, and the humanities.