About Open Science Shop

Background

Open Science Shop began as a GOSH working group focused on the distributed manufacturing of open science hardware, initially focusing on the OpenFlexure Microscope. This research work led to the publication of a report in 2021 on Distributed Manufacturing of Open Hardware. Check out the blog post below to read more about the early work of the GOSH working group.

History of Open Science Shop & Working Group Report

As members of the Open Science Shop community, we have a shared goal of increasing accessibility to open science hardware products. As we launch Open Science Shop with this goal in mind, we thought it would be relevant to share a brief history of how we got to where we

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In early 2024, Open Science Shop was rebooted as monthly OSS-OFM working group meetings.

One of the main projects that the working group has undertaken is to build an international network of existing or new open hardware vendors with local networks for manufacturing and marketing. We are really excited by how much progress we have made already, particularly with building the Manufacturers Page. There are currently 12 manufacturers based in United Kingdom, Sweden, Japan, Australia, Chile, Argentina, Tanzania, Ghana, Cameroon and United States. Read more about the vendor launch in our post below which includes the OpenFlexure Team press release.

Official launch of the OpenFlexure vendors page

This year the Open Science Shop community has been collaborating with the OpenFlexure team with the goal of building a global network of OpenFlexure microscope kit vendors. We have been organizing monthly OSS-OFM working group meetings since February which are archived here. We are really excited by how much progress

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OpenFlexure Working Group

Mothbox Working Group