Data and scientific mediation: lessons from COVID-19 – DoMeSCO

The worldwide epidemic of COVID-19 has had considerable impact on the place and role of data in scientific and technical democracy. Essential to the governmental emergency communication that was invented in most countries of the world, data also found itself at the center of scientific mediation initiatives which were reinvented in a few weeks in a context of radical uncertainty which saw the sources but also the formats of data multiply and transform at a frantic pace. In this landscape, new initiatives have also emerged, which have focused on data visualization, but have also directly participated in the production of new data sets.
In France, this scientific mediation specialized in data has been very successful and has become a trusted third party in the eyes of public authorities in a context of great mistrust of political and scientific institutions. Bolstered by their visibility, the people behind these initiatives have also played a driving role in the demand for the opening of many data sets, and have initiated new forms of collaboration with the public administration.
This project focuses on the French experience. It aims to structure and disseminate the lessons that can be learned from this period in order to provide tools for future mediation efforts, to guide the production and opening of data within the public administration, and to facilitate collaborations between the two.
Designed around a partnership between the Centre de sociologie de l'innovation (Mines ParisTech, i3 - UMR 9217) and the Datactivist cooperative society, it has the official support of the Café des sciences and the Direction Interministérielle de la Transformation Publique.