Bioscience Open Hardware Workshop

31.10.2025

Access to research hardware remains a global challenge and it impacts also researchers in high-income countries. The availability of hardware may be limited due to lack of funding, slow acquisition processes, geographic distance, and many scientific hardware solutions are not commercially available at all. To solve this issue the open source hardware (analogous to open source software) are being developed to facilitate hardware access, dissemination, and reproducibility.

The big difference to software is that with open hardware, the blueprints and assembly instructions are open, but the physical instruments and hardware still need to be built. The open hardware spans from simple 3D prints to complicated customized instruments. In order to lower the barrier to utilize the open hardware, it is crucial to provide researchers with practical experience in making hardware.

Many suitable platforms in Turku exist already (eg. Protopaja, 3Dprinters, Maker´s studio, many labs etc.) but they are scattered and researchers are not well aware of them. In addition, working together with something new is also one of the best ways to promote collaboration and networking. Therefore, we are now organizing open hardware workshops aimed at enhancing skills of bioscience researchers and strengthening the collaborative environment in the BioCity Turku community.

Bioscience Open Hardware Workshop has two parts i) a seminar day (1.12.2025) with local presenters and networking and ii) having separate smaller hands-on workshop (25.-27.11.2025) where we would actually build something simple together. The focus will be in local infra and people, so that it would spark new ideas that could be explored rapidly using local capabilities. The workshop is free of charge and intended for experienced researchers with M.Sc. or Ph.D. (or similar) degrees.

Tentative seminar day program

Monday 1.12.2025
Onsite event
Venue TBA

08:30 – Registration & Morning Coffee
09:00 – Opening Remarks
09:10 – Open Hardware in Biosciences: Concepts, Impact, and Local Landscape
09:50 – Participant Labs: Open Hardware in Action (Session 1)
10:35 – Coffee Break & Networking
10:50 – Participant Labs: Open Hardware in Action (Session 2)
11:35 – Panel Discussion: Building a Collaborative Local Open Hardware Community
12:10 – Lunch & Informal Discussion
13:10 – Showcase: Practical Hands-on Workshop Results
14:10 – Collaborative Brainstorming
15:00 – Closing of the day

Practical hands-on workshop

25.-27.11.2025
scheduled flexibly with participants

In hands-on workshop a smaller group of app. 10 people with different specialties from the BioCity Turku research community work together. The hands-on workshop begins with participant selection and selected participants meet regularly online, discuss and plan tasks & roles for upcoming hands-on session. Before hands-on a separate short safety training for Maker´s Studio will be carried out. During the app. 3-day agile and intensive hands-on session (25-27.11.), the aim is to generate prototype, data, analyses and draft text for a focused research report.

The research is carried out using rapid open hardware prototypes and measurements in embryonic zebrafish models enabling rapid testing and feed-back. The workshop is aimed for experienced researchers with M.Sc. or Ph.D. (or similar) degrees. Due to rapid format, the workshop is not suitable for undergraduate students with no or little research experience.

After the hands-on session, if something publishable is found, the manuscript will be written and finalized as online collaboration. Co-authorships in potential manuscript will be based on contributions along recommendation of TENK (https://www.tenk.fi/sites/tenk.fi/files/TENK_suositus_tekijyys_EN.pdf).

Rapid prototyping and experimentation would enable - not only fast results - but would also facilitate formation of a collaborations between researchers in the campus. Some simple food, soft drinks and coffee are served during hands-on to facilitate interactions and collaborative team spirit.