CZI announces funding for ASAPbio, joins newly created Member Advisory Group

Today, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) announced that it will join a new Member Advisory Group for ASAPbio (Accelerating Science and Publication in biology), a scientist-driven initiative to promote innovation and transparency in life sciences communication. CZI joins five other Advisory Group members. ASAPbio is a nonprofit organization that builds support for preprints, the draft scientific papers that can be shared before they appear in journals. CZI is also announcing support for ASAPbio with a grant of $150,000.

“At CZI Science, we share ASAPbio’s commitment to openness and transparency in science, and are thrilled to join their Member Advisory Group,” said CZI Head of Science Cori Bargmann. “ASAPbio plays a crucial role in advancing understanding of and support for preprints. By accelerating the flow of scientific information, we can speed up the pace of progress on understanding and addressing disease.”

ASAPbio will use this $150,000 grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF (CZI), a donor-advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation, towards increasing awareness of preprints in the life sciences community and promoting discussions around best practices regarding the use of preprints.

CZI Science is dedicated to supporting open science, guided by the belief that the velocity of science and pace of discovery increase as scientists build on each others’ discoveries. Last spring, CZI Science announced a collaboration with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) to help support their online platform, bioRxiv, a free service enabling life science researchers to share preprints. CZI Science also partners with protocols.io, an open-access repository of science methods.

“CZI has been a strong supporter of preprints, both through its progressive policies and its support of bioRxiv,” said ASAPbio Executive Director Jessica Polka. “We are delighted to partner with CZI to bring information and conversations about preprints to new communities.”

About ASAPbio:

ASAPbio is a scientist-driven nonprofit promoting innovation and transparency in life sciences publishing. Since 2015, it has convened meetings to drive cultural change around preprints and transparent peer review. For more information, visit asapbio.org.

About the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative:

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative was launched in December 2015 by Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, and Priscilla Chan, a pediatrician and founder and CEO of The Primary School in East Palo Alto. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative is a new kind of philanthropy that seeks to engineer change at scale. By pairing world-class engineering with grant-making, impact investing, policy, and advocacy work, CZI hopes to build a future for everyone. Initial areas of focus include supporting science through basic biomedical research and education through personalized learning. CZI is also exploring ways to address barriers to justice and opportunity – from criminal justice reform, to expanded access, to economic opportunity and affordable housing.