Towards national policy for open source hardware research: The case of Finland

Publishing date: 2020-04-06

Published on: Technological Forecasting and Social Change

summary: Free and open-source hardware (FOSH) is rapidly gaining momentum because it provides customized research hardware with over 90% savings compared to the costs of proprietary tools. However, the focused skill sets of researchers who aim to facilitate their own research limit the complexity of this hardware. To overcome this complexity barrier and obtain large returns on investment for research funders by replacing the most expensive proprietary research equipment with FOSH, new development funding mechanisms are needed. To guide such research policy, this paper provides the first analysis of the strategic national benefit of applying the FOSH approach to major research equipment for any nation

authors: T.S. Heikkinen, H.Savin, J.Partanen, J.Seppälä, J.M.Pearce

link to paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.119986

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