Introduction

Open technology, data and knowledge is open for anyone to use, reuse, modify and commercialise. In particular, open technology has been fundamental to the growth of the digital economy. For example, research suggests that 97% of applications leverage some aspect of open-source code¹, and 90% of companies are applying or using open source software in some way. OpenUK estimates that open data, software and hardware deliver an economic boost of between £29.5 billion and £43.2 billion to the UK². This points at the huge global community of contributors to open source software: GitHub alone had 413 million open-source software (OSS) contributions in 2022³. 

Open technologies therefore present us with an opportunity to democratise technology, promote collaboration and generate intellectual, societal and economic value. However, they often receive less attention than proprietary tools and technologies. In part this is because by their nature, their downstream use and impact is more challenging to track. We have worked with researchers and innovators to tell the stories of open technologies emerging from the University of Cambridge and the broader Cambridge tech ecosystem, explore their current use and applications, the challenges faced and lessons learned, and their future potential.

The University of Cambridge has been sharing world-leading knowledge and innovations for over 800 years, and the contribution it can make to society through the dissemination and application of knowledge is core to its mission and values⁴. Through bringing these stories together, we see the role that collaborative development and open sharing of technology can play in forging innovative partnerships, growing inclusive innovation communities and accelerating the translation of research to impact. We hope that you find these technologies as inspiring, intriguing and impactful as the researchers who were motivated to both develop them and to share them with the world.

Dr Jenny Molloy
EngBio IRC Co-chair