In an era driven by data and digital collaboration, access to foundational research skills is increasingly essential—yet research capacity remains deeply unequal across the globe. For instance, Africa has only 20 health researchers per million people, compared to 246 per million in Europe, according to the World Health Organization’s Global Observatory on Health Research and Development. This stark disparity highlights the urgent need for accessible, inclusive research training to bridge the gap in global knowledge production.

Pre-Seeds (Research 101) is an open-source, community-driven initiative inspired by OLS’s capacity-building programs, such as Open Seeds and Nebula. The course is designed to break down barriers to research literacy and amplify underrepresented voices in open science. It is targeted at research enthusiasts, citizen scientists, early-career researchers, and Research Software Engineers (RSEs) from non-academic backgrounds.

Currently in its early stages, Pre-seeds aims to create a flexible, modular curriculum covering key aspects of research often taken for granted, such as research design, ethical considerations, data management, and collaborative practices. The project leverages open tools like GitHub to promote collaboration, transparency, and reproducibility, inviting broad participation across disciplines and experience levels.

This session will present Pre-Seeds as a growing, collaborative effort to build an inclusive research ecosystem. By showcasing the project’s vision and its potential real-world applications, we’ll open the floor to feedback and invite attendees to join us in shaping this initiative—whether through expertise, funding, or community engagement—to co-create a more diverse and accessible future for open science.