Lesson 5: Connecting to open science hardware communities

Last updated on 2026-10-05 | Edit this page

Estimated time: 30 minutes

Overview

Questions

  • How do researchers interact differently with OSH, as users or developers?
  • Where can researchers get support and collaborate with others?

Objectives

  • Distinguish between researchers acting as OSH developers and as OSH users, and describe the support each needs.
  • Name key OSH communities and forums.
  • Help connect researchers with peers and mentors.

Researchers’ roles in OSH: users, developers and in-between

As we’ve seen in previous lessons, researchers engage with open science hardware (OSH) in different ways—sometimes as developers creating new tools, and sometimes as users looking for ready-to-use solutions. Understanding this distinction helps librarians tailor their support, whether that means guiding a researcher through licensing and documentation or helping them assess whether an existing tool meets their needs. Two examples will help clarify these situations.

Dr. Liu: Open science hardware as a research prototype

Dr. Liu, a biomedical engineering professor, is designing a custom fluorescence imaging system to study bacterial colonies. Commercial systems are too expensive and don’t support the specific wavelengths her research requires.

To solve this, her lab builds a working prototype using open-source components: 3D-printed mounts, Arduino boards, and open-source image capture software. The system works well for testing ideas, but it’s not production-grade—it requires manual calibration and includes fragile parts.

Still, Dr. Liu considers the design to be useful and publishes the design files and experimental results on GitHub under an open license. This enables others to build on her work, refine the system, or apply it in related contexts. As a developer, Dr. Liu is contributing to the OSH ecosystem by openly sharing a prototype that reflects her research needs and invites further collaboration.

Dr. Khan: Open science hardware as a research tool

In contrast, Dr. Khan, a plant biologist, needs a reliable field-deployable system to monitor soil moisture in her drought-resistance trials. She’s not interested in designing new hardware—she wants something she can use right away with confidence in its performance.

She finds a well-documented OSH project created by another lab, complete with calibration data, a weatherproof casing, and clear instructions. Because the design is stable and has been tested in real-world conditions, she’s able to build and deploy it with minimal adaptation. In this scenario, Dr. Khan is acting as a user, relying on the maturity and reproducibility of the hardware to generate high-quality data.

Callout

Recognizing whether a researcher is seeking an adaptable prototype or a ready-to-use tool can help you provide more targeted support—whether that means pointing to appropriate repositories, helping interpret documentation quality, or guiding early-stage researchers through best practices in sharing their own designs.

Beyond users and developers

“User” and “developer” are only the two ends of a longer list. A working OSH project depends on several kinds of contribution, and one person often covers more than one:

  • Designers and engineers who turn a research idea into a design that other people can build, and who keep improving it.
  • Builders and testers who replicate a design, report what worked and what did not, and so show whether it can be reproduced.
  • Documenters who write the build instructions, bill of materials and calibration notes that make reuse possible.
  • Maintainers who answer questions, review changes and keep files and links working after the first prototype.
  • Community organizers who connect makers, researchers and institutions, and who run workshops and forums.
  • Support staff, including librarians, who help people find, cite, deposit and preserve designs.

There is more engineering involved in OSH than building the first prototype. Making a design robust, documenting it, testing it with other people and maintaining it over the years is skilled work. In research software, research software engineers (RSEs) have gained recognition as a distinct profession, and OSH needs the same recognition for engineering work. Without it, the people who do this work have little reason to continue, and designs tend to be abandoned after the first publication.

Callout

Librarians can help make engineering work visible: by encouraging researchers to deposit and cite hardware designs, to credit everyone who contributed, and to describe contributions (such as design, testing and documentation) in publications, repositories and project pages.

Where and how to connect: Community mapping for Librarians

Open science hardware thrives in community spaces—both online and offline—where researchers, makers, educators, and activists collaborate, troubleshoot, and share ideas. As a librarian, one of the most valuable forms of support you can offer is helping researchers find the right community for their needs and stage of engagement.

Below is a short guide to some key OSH communities and platforms:

Community / Platform Focus Who It’s For How to Connect
Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH) Global community promoting OSH for science and social justice Developers, researchers, educators Forum, mailing list, community calls
Open Science Hardware Foundation (OSHF) Stewardship of the GOSH movement, fiscal sponsorship, governance Institutions, funders, community builders Website, contact form, governance updates
OSHWA (Open Source Hardware Association) Advocacy, policy, and certification Designers, educators, researchers Website, newsletter, certification directory
Public Lab Community science & environmental monitoring Activist researchers, educators, community groups PublicLab.org, Q&A forum, open calls
Wikifactory Collaborative platform for hardware design Makers, product developers Platform, project hosting, discussions
CERN Open Hardware Repository (OHR) Scientific hardware sharing and collaboration Scientists, engineers OHR, Git-based repositories
Local makerspaces / fab labs Prototyping tools and peer exchange Beginners to advanced users Local directories, Meetup, university networks

You don’t need to be an expert in every platform to help—just knowing what exists and how to help someone navigate it is a powerful way to connect researchers to support, feedback, and collaborators.

Challenge

Challenge 1: Mapping communities

Create a short referral guide or table listing 3–5 OSH communities or platforms you would feel confident pointing researchers toward. For each, describe in 1–2 sentences who it’s for, what type of support it offers, and how to connect. If you’re unsure about one, explore its website or forum and note what kind of questions are typically asked.

Any of the communities listed above, or any new ones brought by learners.

Supporting researchers to participate in OSH Communities

Even when researchers are enthusiastic about open hardware, they may be unsure how to participate in existing communities. As a librarian, you can encourage them by normalizing engagement as part of the research process and highlighting accessible entry points.

Many communities are beginner-friendly and value a wide range of contributions—not just technical expertise. A researcher might:

  • Ask a question on a forum about replicating a tool.
  • Comment on an open design they’ve used or tested.
  • Share how they adapted an open design to a new context (e.g., for fieldwork or teaching).
  • Report bugs or suggest documentation improvements.

These contributions help others and are often welcomed as meaningful engagement, even if they don’t involve new inventions. You can also encourage researchers to attend virtual gatherings or community calls, where they can meet others working on similar challenges and learn how knowledge and tools circulate outside traditional publication venues.

Reminding researchers that OSH communities are collaborative—not competitive—spaces can reduce hesitation and help build confidence. You might suggest starting with a “lurking” phase (reading discussions, reviewing existing posts), followed by small contributions, and eventually deeper participation if they feel comfortable.

Where libraries and universities already support OSH

Researchers rarely need to start from zero. Several parts of a university can already help with open hardware, and part of your role is knowing which, and referring people to them.

Makerspaces

Makerspaces are common in public libraries, and some university libraries run them too. They give researchers and students access to tools such as 3D printers, laser cutters and electronics benches, which are the same tools used to prototype many OSH designs. A makerspace can be a place to build a design, and its staff can be partners for documenting and sharing it. Check whether your library, or another unit on campus, runs one.

Open source program offices

Some universities have an open source program office (OSPO), a campus office that supports open source work and advises on licensing and sharing. Most OSPOs focus on software, but not all do:

  • The CERN OSPO supports releasing both software and hardware designs.
  • The UW-Madison OSPO has held an event on open source hardware.

Ask what your campus OSPO covers. If your campus does not have one, a network may still help: the UC OSPO Network and the University of Texas OSPO are examples of networks that share resources and training.

Technology transfer and other offices

Technology transfer (tech transfer) offices usually handle how a university manages intellectual property, so they matter when a researcher wants to openly license a design. At some universities the OSPO works closely with tech transfer, so a researcher asking about open licensing may need both. Other offices to know about are the research office, research computing, and any campus fab lab or engineering shop.

Callout

Hardware can come out of a campus and have a large impact. RISC-V, an open specification for computer chips, started in 2010 as a UC Berkeley research project and is now in billions of devices, according to the UC OSPO Network’s iASSIST 2026 handout. It is a specification for chips, not a physical research instrument like the examples in this course, but it shows how open hardware can start in a university lab.

Where librarians can help

Participants in the first in-person run of this course named two areas where librarians can help most:

  • Policy. Libraries can help shape institutional policy on sharing, depositing and citing research outputs, and can include hardware in it.
  • Outreach to researchers. Citation is a recognition mechanism that gets researchers’ attention. Librarians can explain how a deposited and cited design counts as a research output.

A practical first step is to build a short list of the offices on your campus that touch OSH, with a named contact for each, so you know where to send a researcher.

Challenge

Challenge 2: Libraries as hubs for open science hardware

What role does your library already play in supporting open communities? Consider your spaces, programs, and partnerships. Which of the offices described above (makerspace, OSPO, tech transfer, research office) exist at your institution, and who is the contact in each? Where might OSH fit in or expand your existing work?

Free answers

Key Points
  • Researchers engage with OSH as both developers (creating and sharing new tools) and users (replicating or adapting existing tools); recognizing this distinction is key to offering the right support.
  • Support can include recommending forums, guiding participation, and lowering entry barriers
  • OSH communities value all types of contributions—from bug fixes and documentation improvements to new use cases and adaptations.
  • Many researchers hesitate to engage; librarians can help normalize participation and foster confidence by highlighting that OSH is collaborative, not competitive.
  • Your library can play a strategic role in supporting open communities—through referrals, programming, infrastructure, or peer learning.