Impacts of Digitalization on Science and Researchers' Skills: A systemic Approach to Innovation Policy

This thesis frames an overview of digitalization of science, its effects, features and components in the context of researchers’ skills and S&T policy. Digitalization is connected with data and software deluge, it is enabled by the idea, that everything in this world can be tracked, measured and evaluated now, thus the ongoing processes in business and science will change. This thesis focuses either on a role of data scientist. A data scientist is one of the burning issues included into the digital agenda. It is perceived as a person, who can do some miracles from extremely large amount of data. The emergence of advanced digital tools for data storage, curation and operation significantly influences the way scientific results are produced. Related research had shown that the adaptation and usage of data and data-led analysis is ubiquitous and widespread in science, thus more evidence is needed to understand how it could be utilized more efficiently and which skills will be required by researchers to do this in the future. All these prerequisites gave birth to a ‘data-paradox’, a battle between two commonly known and accepted ways of performing scientific process. Within the thesis the paradox will be explained and the follow up question: “What did come first: data or hypothesis?” will be answered. In addition, the thesis will drive some attention to a new way of interpreting the digitalization process – a digital science system framework, which main components are Open Science paradigm, data application, analysis and software, digital skills for science. The last part of the thesis will discuss three case studies in terms of policies and policy instruments that are used by different countries for almost the same unspoken goal: stay competitive and prosperous in a longer period. Finally the extended version of the digital science system framework is introduced, giving a deeper understanding of the role of skills within the context.