Civil Engineering October 2022 | Vol 30 No 9

48 October 2022 Civil Engineering In at least two of these recent SANRAL funded research projects there was an obvious need to link in with value added and processed information that formed the basis of the new South Africa Pavement Empirical-Mechanistic Design Method or Model (SAPEMDM). The need is to link in with this prior work on important aspects relating to perfor- mance modelling, like transfer functions for asphalt materials and granular material performance evaluations. Repeated requests via various channels to get access to the database background information was literally stonewalled and only recently was an audience given to possibly clarify these concerns. In this granted audience, a senior official linked to this dataset management had to admit that a non-disclosure agreement prevented them from sharing this infor- mation with anyone. That, in raw terms, is a secrecy act or suppression of access to information. It hampers the research effort in these areas significantly and created additional uncertainty. This, from my perspective, is a clear demonstration of agnotology in science and engineering under the guise of secrecy or suppression 7 of knowledge. Regarding the much-vaunted SAPEMDM there is also the uncomfort- able aspect of the coding of the linear elastic layered software program, which forms the core of the pavement structural analysis. The intellectual property (IP) ap- pears to have been hijacked. The IP rights linked to the originator of this software seem to have been “usurped” by SANRAL under mysterious circumstances. The basic and later improved version of this software was previously available to everybody after training at the CSIR as caretaker. Now, suddenly, it is not freely available and will reportedly be integrated with the new (unseen and untested) web- based “mother of all systems”. There will apparently be limited control or variation allowed. On top of that no one knows how the code may have been changed as it is not open to public scrutiny. The fact is that the informed and trained user knew how to make changes to simulate actual variations without being hamstrung by a web version that will clearly only allow the client-accepted use. No other software currently on the market muzzles the user in this way. OPEN SCIENCE AND COLLABORATIVE R&D Admittedly, I come from an era when R&D in the old CSIR was practiced in the open in the public square. One can easily be accused of being an angry old man, ranting and raving, but that open system was exposed to rigorous internal and international peer review processes. Products like guideline documents are still internationally recognised as some of the best of such type of publications. Information sharing was done without restrictions and even IP rights played second fiddle to the need to push the knowledge envelope and thus stay ahead of the game. It is therefore interesting that there is a new recognition about the value of open science (OS) in Europe. “Open science (OS) is considered the new paradigm for science and knowledge dissemination. OS fosters cooperative work and new ways of distributing knowl- edge by promoting effective data sharing (as early and broadly as possible) and a dynamic exchange of research outcomes, not only publications. On the other hand, intellectual property (IP) legislation seeks to balance the moral and economic rights of creators and inventors with the wider interests and needs of society. Managing knowledge outcomes in a new open research and innovation ecosystem is challenging and should become part of the EU’s IP strategy, underpinning EU policies with the new open science–open innovation paradigm.” 7 This seems to run counter to what the current SANRAL research and management effort have demonstrated to date. This is certainly an initiative to monitor and possibly emulate. It is clear that open sharing and less secrecy is the way to go. Typically, in the current SANRAL research projects, the work done in Australia in the years since 2000 has surpassed the previous knowl- edge centres and pockets of knowledge in South Africa. Their climate is very similar to ours and it is no surprise that a signifi- cant number of South African experts and researchers have found Australia as their new home. There is a clear need to now tap into knowledge already gained in areas like field testing of material density or effective elastic moduli with new technology like the light falling weight deflectometer. Not only do we now need to play catch up with R&D in the roads and transportation field, but we need to become smarter by pursuing The saga of the new SAPEMDM Said work was previously done and virtually exclusively channelled via the aforementioned selected friendly, yet renowned researcher, now also in dias- pora. Initially, the new SAPEMDM was touted to be ready for implementation as early as 2015. The new web-based platform (read black box if you tend towards the cynical) was to be more or less launched, and all potential users literally had to stay an extra day after the 2015 CAPSA Conference at Sun City in order to register and/or be trained to use this new hitherto unseen software. This rollout spluttered and apparently died in a cloud of uncertainty. At the subsequent 2019 CAPSA Conference, no rollout came and only issues relating to software coding, large computer sourcing and integration issues were reported on. The bottom line is this SAPEMDM is not yet available for scru- tiny or use and access to the datasets and test method descriptions that relate to such information is also not allowed. “Open science (OS) is considered the new paradigm for science and knowledge dissemination. OS fosters cooperative work and new ways of distributing knowledge by promoting effective data sharing (as early and broadly as possible) and a dynamic exchange of research outcomes, not only publications. On the other hand, intellectual property (IP) legislation seeks to balance the moral and economic rights of creators and inventors with the wider interests and needs of society. Managing knowledge outcomes in a new open research and innovation ecosystem is challenging and should become part of the EU’s IP strategy, underpinning EU policies with the new open science–open innovation paradigm.”