GOSH November 2026 Newsletter
November 2026 GOSH Newsletter
Reflections on GOSH 2026
In October, we were thrilled to host our fifth GOSH Global Gathering and first in South Asia, welcoming over 100 people in Kathmandu, Nepal. Expertly hosted by our longtime collaborators at Karkhana Samuha, the event was a capstone in this, our 10th anniversary year, coming a decade after our Gathering at CERN in 2016 and offering exactly what one would hope for on such an occasion: an opportunity to reflect on old, new, and persistent priorities, and see old friends and make new ones.
Indeed, this year we were thrilled to welcome many people for whom this was their first Gathering. Over 50% of this year’s attendees were drawn from the local area and surrounding regions, not merely introducing new perspectives and forging new connections but also extending our community to new contributors and future leaders.
What happened in Kathmandu?
GOSH 2026 took place over three days in early October, with a program featuring a mix of presentations, hands-on workshops, and participant-organized “unconference” sessions covering a broad range of technical and community priorities.
The Gathering also created space to revisit the GOSH Roadmap and consider what progress toward accessible, open scientific hardware should look like in another ten years’ time. Participants contributed nearly 200 observations and ideas addressing the challenges, opportunities, and capacities that will shape the community's next decade.
In a closing reflection, participants were invited to share how their perspectives on GOSH, open hardware, and the Gathering had changed throughout the course of the event. Several described discovering that scientific hardware could be more accessible and approachable than they had imagined. Others emphasized the importance of learning through participation and, importantly, interdisciplinary relationships - one respondent in particular reflected that the value of a Gathering may lie in finding just one or two people with whom to continue working long after the event ends.
Towards that end, the next section will provide a few tips on some easy next steps to get and stay connected.
Welcome to GOSH!
If you joined us in Kathmandu and this is your first GOSH newsletter, welcome! If you’re tuning in for the first time in a long time, welcome back! We're delighted you're here.
A good place to get started is the GOSH Forum, where community members share projects and find opportunities to collaborate. After registering, you'll need to take a few steps to earn the trust level required to contribute. We suggest starting with Introductions to meet other community members, then exploring Projects to see what people across GOSH have been working on. Once you're able to post, please introduce yourself!
Our Gathering photo collection is also available, with more than 700 photos already shared and more potentially on the way! A full Community Report will also be released toward the end of the year, with an announcement here and on the Forum.
With thanks
The 2026 Gathering was made possible through the generous contributions of many people and organizations. We are especially grateful to Karkhana Samuha, whose local leadership and hospitality were central to the event, and to Seeed Studio for its sponsorship.
We also extend our deep appreciation to the Open Science Hardware Foundation (OSHF), GOSH's fiscal sponsor and principal financial supporter, whose substantial contribution made this year's Gathering possible.
Finally, we want to recognize the Gathering Working Group, whose members dedicated extraordinary time, care, and intention to planning the event.
To everyone who participated, contributed, or made it possible for someone else take part: thank you so much. The Gathering would not have been possible without you.
Ambassador Dispatches
GOSH 2026-2027 Ambassadors, clockwise from bottom left: Marcel Bentancor, Samuel Duah, Alejandra Hidalgo de Camba, Adrian Filip, and Ebuza Ezeike
Our 2026-2027 GOSH Ambassadors have wasted no time in developing opportunities to engage their local and disciplinary communities in open science, open hardware and other related events. In less than two months, they've organized or contributed to at least seven events, collectively drawing more than 400 participants!
Adrian Filips delivered a lecture on open science hardware at the Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable in Montevideo, Uruguay, introducing GOSH and open hardware approaches to researchers in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Neurophysiology.
Alejandra Hidalgo de Camba has launched the first two sessions of her eight-part webinar series, The Great Odyssey Towards Open Science and Open Scientific Hardware, and contributed to several other events in Panama and internationally. Her activities have explored open hardware as a means of expanding access to scientific technologies in higher education, its role in university innovation and governance, and opportunities for regional collaboration.
Samuel Duah organized an introductory webinar for Ghanaian students exploring the potential of open science hardware to expand access to scientific tools and support locally driven innovation. The discussion covered applications in education, healthcare, agriculture, and environmental monitoring, along with practical ways for students to participate in GOSH through the Forum, community calls, and existing projects.
Current Forum Discussions
The GOSH Forum is your go-to source for conversations, announcements, and updates from the GOSH community. Here are some recent threads:
- @gabioshka shared the HEROES workshop report, exploring how to support long-term institutional adoption of open science hardware
- @gould99 documented overheating troubleshooting for the open-source motorized XYZ micro-manipulator, reporting that a lower-voltage power supply prevented overheating during testing
Relevant Publications
- Jiang, Songyan, et al. “Towards Understanding the Bugs in Verilator, a Hardware Description Language Compiler.” Proceedings of the ACM on Software Engineering 3, no. ISSTA (2026): 3086–3107.
- Griffey, J. (with Dosemagen, S., Grey, F., Molloy, J., Parker, A., & Serrano, J.). (2026). HEROES: Hardware Ecosystem Requirements for Open and Emerging Science — Event Report. Open Science Hardware Foundation.
- Parlin, et al. “Smoke Signals: Measuring Wildlife Smoke Exposure with Animal-Borne and Stationary Sensors.” Methods in Ecology and Evolution (2026).
- Pettinau, Luca, Pierpaolo Congia, and Katja Anttila. “Validation of an Open-Source Hardware for Cardio-Physiological Studies in Fish: A Statistical Equivalence Study with a Widely Used Research-Grade Electrophysiological Recording System.” Biology Open (2026): bio.062716.
Upcoming Events
As we near the end of the year, there are some nicely aligned events popping up in both 2026 and into 2027:
- OpenAlt 2026, 7–8 November, Brno, Czech Republic
- FOSS for All, 28 November, Seoul, South Korea
- Gathering for Open Ag Tech (GOAT), 7–11 December, Seabrook Island, SC, USA
- FOSDEM'27, 30-31 January 2027, Brussels, Belgium
- FOSS Backstage 2027, 2–3 March 2027, Berlin, Germany
- FOSSASIA Summit 2027, 7–9 March 2027, Bangkok, Thailand
Get Involved
- Join the GOSH Forum
- The GOSH Forum is the place to meet GOSHers worldwide, learn about regional open science hardware communities, and find out more about upcoming GOSH events.
Newsletter content is © Gathering for Open Science Hardware and licensed under CC-BY 4.0, unless otherwise stated.
