On June 1st of 2021, members of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH) community convened a virtual writing workshop for promoting Open Source Hardware (OScH) at the international policy level (you can read more about this workshops in a blog post here). Workshop participants included OScH practitioners and those with international policy backgrounds from across the globe. The resulting policy brief highlights the potential for innovation that OScH brings on the international level and how international organizations can best promote OScH practices.
Key Messages
1. International organisations and governments can increase their innovation capacity towards the SDGs by adopting and promoting open hardware.
2. Open hardware can build innovation capacity in countries with low investments in science, technology and innovation, making these investments more efficient.
3. Open hardware enables new multi-stakeholder partnerships and collaborations between academia, civil society and the private sector, towards the SDGs.
4. Open hardware adoption makes science more transparent and participative, supporting global decentralised collaboration.
5. International organisations can promote open hardware expansion by incorporating open hardware (OH) in their strategies, aligning incentives and raising awareness through education and training.