After framing the values, value proposition and simple language we used the Story Spine framework—a simple storytelling structure—to imagine how the future of science might unfold. Each individual followed the format:

• Once upon a time ... [What Was]
• Until one day ... [Moment of change]
• Ever since then ... [What is / will be]

This exercise helped translate abstract concepts into relatable narratives, grounding our ideas in emotional clarity and shared purpose. Through these stories, participants envisioned a shift from closed, individualistic, and slow-moving systems to ones defined by openness, iteration, collaboration, and trust.

ONCE UPON A TIME we lived in a world of dark research. Data sets and unfinished projects in file drawers never seeing the light of day because researchers were afraid to share something small and were waiting for the BIG thing. UNTIL ONE DAY one lab group at a time started changing their culture of how they shared - making it safe to share the small insights in a way that they could build on and collaborate and remix. EVER SINCE THEN the researchers saw that they were moving faster, able to see, explore and recombine insights to get to the bigger ideas together.

Common threads emerged across stories:

From Isolation to Collaboration

Scientists moved from hoarding data and fearing competition to sharing early and working as teams—across labs, disciplines, and borders.

From Publication Bottlenecks to Modular Sharing

The traditional journal article was replaced by modular, reusable components like datasets, code, and visualizations—shared in real time and remixable by others.

From Rigid Metrics to Recognition of Contribution

A new system of credit acknowledged diverse roles, enabling everyone—from graduate students to software engineers—to receive meaningful recognition.

From Opaque Decisions to Evidence in Action

Policymakers, funders, and the public gained access to executable evidence they could explore, query, and trust—closing the gap between research and real-world impact.

From Fear and Scarcity to Trust and Reuse

Many stories described a culture shift, where researchers no longer feared being scooped, but instead saw value in being part of a larger, connected community.

Whether grounded in institutional change, infrastructure, or individual action, each story painted a picture of what science could become if we embraced composability—not just in how we share knowledge, but in how we build community, culture, and trust.

Stories¶

ONCE UPON A TIME researchers were forced to share long stories of their research without any of the pieces of code, data, protocols integrated or sometimes even available. UNTIL ONE DAY they decided to share every component as they were making it, they invested in organizing how their own lab group worked. EVER SINCE THEN they could see the work, pull new articles together faster, and empower their colleagues to build on their work directly. Working more collaboratively and faster on bigger, more impactful, world changing ideas.

ONCE UPON A TIME we lived in a world of dark research. Data sets and unfinished projects in file drawers never seeing the light of day because researchers were afraid to share something small and were waiting for the BIG thing. UNTIL ONE DAY one lab group at a time started changing their culture of how they shared - making it safe to share the small insights in a way that they could build on and collaborate and remix. EVER SINCE THEN the researchers saw that they were moving faster, able to see, explore and recombine insights to get to the bigger ideas together.

ONCE UPON A time climate researchers withheld their insights from each other for years until it was published in a paper, for fear of being upstaged. UNTIL ONE DAY a brave researcher decided to start sharing every new hypothesis, observation, and insight continuously through their networks of collaborators, which grew until the entire field was one big collaboration on climate. EVER SINCE THEN our climate models became more responsive, predictive, and effective; everyone knew which measurement would inform the next model; citizen scientists throughout the world, who previously felt powerless in the face of climate change, found a way to meaningfully contribute to climate knowledge; and we backed off the carbon cliff by discovering new carbon ecosystems.

ONCE UPON A TIME we were bogged down by publish or perish and the mindless chasing of metrics. UNTIL ONE DAY we faced the dismantling of science by strange powers. We decided that we could resist by reinventing ourselves. EVER SINCE THEN we are building new patterns of work and the tools to support us to make composable science.

ONCE UPON A TIME scientists and researchers were told they should favour individualism and compete in a harsh, metric – driven enterprise. UNTIL ONE DAY a movement for communal, open and free search for truth spread. It led to new patterns of working together to benefit humanity And to thrive as a society. EVER SINCE THEN we saw new discoveries and fast progress, by researchers who built teams, spoke to the public and were trusted.

ONCE UPON A TIME success in academic research was rigidly defined and too many people were kept out because they did not conform to the status quo/traditional metrics of achievement. UNTIL ONE DAY a new mindset backed by technological implementation of an acknowledgement system allowed diverse perspectives to be discovered, compared, remixed and celebrated. EVER SINCE THEN contributions towards knowledge generation have been more linked, better acknowledged, and different perspectives are easier to compare, contrast, and explore … together!

ONCE UPON A TIME evidence-based decision making was scarily vibe-based! Government workers called their friends/contacts in academia and took their advice based only on a phone call. UNTIL ONE DAY composable science made it possible for research teams to put the evidence in an executable form right at the policy makers desks - they could explore, query and understand the questions they were needing to ask. EVER SINCE THEN academic researchers have worked more effectively, faster, and over more iterations, with people consuming their research outputs. Our society is more grounded in understanding the needs of its people and can adapt quickly to new and diverse, including conflicting!, findings.

ONCE UPON A TIME Sadie was miserable and lonely. As a 4th year PhD student in a big neuroscience lab, she had to work and hustle to generate … of data without being able to rely on feedback from anyone - her PI who was managing 20 projects, her post-doc who just counseled her to “shut up and run the behaviours” - even other students who might … her for needing help, or worse, steal her ideas and covet them as their own. UNTIL ONE DAY She saw a BlueSky post with a figure from a competitive lab that exactly matched the data she was working on. At first, she was devastated all that work for nothing. But then she realized it was an early result published openly. She told her post-doc about it, who told her she hadn’t seen it and work faster so they wouldn’t get scooped. Instead, she reached out and asked if she could use the figure and data, pushing past her fear of both her lab and the respond of the strangers. EVER SINCE THEN [...!]

ONCE UPON A TIME scientists working globally would only trust knowledge that was shared in a few narrow places. UNTIL ONE DAY the pace and volume of data, code, results and knowledge shared by research groups locally became the source of truth EVER SINCE THEN science has moved faster, shared more, solved more and helped more.

ONCE UPON A TIME Science projected exclusivity, with specific individuals and organizations acting as gatekeepers of scientific communication. This led to a lack of recognition and support for the myriad of individuals involved in the research process, alongside a breakdown in public trust of the sciences and its perceived “elites”. UNTIL ONE DAY scientific communication became more continuous, composable, and anchored in the idea that it is the scientific community writ large - not just one person who ultimately creates the findings that allow humanity to collectively move forward. EVER SINCE THEN research outputs have become more readily available, and reworked for different stakeholder audiences. Everyone involved in the research process is given credit for their contributions, and science is seen as more trustworthy and accessible to all.

ONCE UPON A TIME scientific communication was slow, ossified, and disconnected from the public who the science was ultimately meant to serve (and who funded the work). Junior researchers, and other non-primary research contributors were presented with cumbersome, opaque pathways for communicating their ideas and advancing their careers. UNTIL ONE DAY scientific sharing became continuous and made up of composable units that properly gave credit to everyone involved in the research process and were readily incorporable into new works. EVER SINCE THEN there has been a boon in scientific communication with results continuously repackaged for diverse audiences

ONCE UPON A TIME Graduate student Riley slaved alone in a chemistry lab, slowly discovering what worked and what didn’t. RIle struggled to obtain guidance from opaque manuscripts and postdocs who jealously guarded their ideas. After discovering a new recipe, Riley rewrote all 84 steps in a painfully long manuscript, skipping over many contributions from others. UNTIL ONE DAY Riley discovered a CC BY 4.0 series of papers and made an even better recipe in a quarter the time. Writing up the results was a snap due to permissive reuse of past work, and Riley gave credit to all contributors. EVER SINCE THEN Riley only publishers open, composable results, to help all who come after.

ONCE UPON A TIME researchers had to conduct and communicate research in a way that would – primarily – improve their chances of getting published in a high impact venue. UNTIL ONE DAY funders and institutions recognize the error of their ways and made a concerted decision to shift the system of rewards to prioritize, early sharing, rapid iteration, and transparency. EVER SINCE THEN scientist feel free to organize research in their labs to optimize discovery and foster maximal collaboration and share results openly without concern for superficial Outcomes.

ONCE UPON A TIME physicists built powerful models that were locked away in internal formats. Comparing results was slow and painful. People eager to fix this but didn’t know how. UNTIL ONE DAY 19 years later, two friends were discussing at dinner how to make it easier for their theory friends to ask questions and they built a simple tool that night. EVER SINCE THEN tools grew and were adopted and theorists set a new tool for discourse and scientific partnership with experimentalist open models ? physics.

ONCE UPON A TIME there was great hesitation among researchers to share their ideas and methods openly, as they felt suppressed by competition and risk. UNTIL ONE DAY They noticed some of them had formed a community where there was open exchange of tools and ideas and nothing bad happened. This small community did more and learned by openly working. EVER SINCE THEN The community grew, dispelled misconceptions and fostered more honest beliefs, and empowered more researchers to do more and to strive for greater ambition together.

ONCE UPON A TIME Mo worked in fear - he was isolated alone, unwilling to share what he knew; he coveted glory; feared getting scooped and so hoarded his data, kept his software secret and published articles only when he was sure. UNTIL ONE DAY Martha, his new VP of research, joined his university. She believed there was a better way; a way that was more just and more respectful for Mo; for his colleague and for the university EVER SINCE THEN Mo works in the open; sharing generously - working together with his colleagues.

ONCE UPON A TIME Scientists held a tight grip upon the code and data they used to do science. They were driven by fear: the fear of being scooped, fear of their work being stolen. They were driven by greed; going their name on more papers by being gatekeepers of precious code and data. UNTIL ONE DAY the evil king slashed budgets and cancelled grounds. And then scientists realized that other scientists had precious code and data, and that by coming together and sharing it, they can get even more done and benefit the public good. EVER SINCE THEN Scientists have been publishing their current data early and reusing and benefiting science.

ONCE UPON A TIME Researchers would have to wait years between discovery and publication. UNTIL ONE DAY A community-owned platform enabled them to share smaller components of their research for quick peer review and reuse by other scientists. EVER SINCE THEN Science has been more collaborative, ensuring better quality work that gets done faster and with transparency.

ONCE UPON A TIME We lived in a golden age of modern trust. Scientists worked alone, hoarding their work like a dragon hoards the treasure of a fallen kingdom. UNTIL ONE DAY The scientific community came together to bring light to the darkness, the gates which had previously held back those looking to contribute were unlocked, unleashing a flood of new ideas. EVER SINCE THEN Science has been more collaborative, open, and reusable. And while science will never reach a “final” state, scientists are empowered to keep improving their craft.

ONCE UPON A TIME science moved at the speed of the printing press Even though the internet was a thing already UNTIL ONE DAY The modular/open science movement introduced a paradigm of rapid and continuous sharing, ideally, and collaborations where researchers are rewarded for adapting + reusing work of all types EVER SINCE THEN Trust has grown between scientists and the public and Science has moved at the speed of trust.

ONCE UPON A TIME Scientists were competitive and individuals were siloed and restrained, afraid to openly share their work and collaborate. Think environment bred selfishness and hoarding, and the world was sad. UNTIL ONE DAY The modular open science movement introduced a paradigm of rapid, continuous, and inclusive science, sharing, iterating, and collaboration. Researchers were rewarded for integrity and trust. They felt free and less alone. EVER SINCE THEN Trust between researchers and between Science and society has grown, and Science moves at the speed of this new trust and the world thrives.

ONCE UPON A TIME scientists and innovators were forced to publish in a single format that made scientific progress slow and scientists lonely. UNTIL ONE DAY a modular science paradigm was born in Banff to a group of 20 passionate scientists and innovators who wanted to make science more rapid, iterative, and collaborative. EVER SINCE THEN Scientific research has evolved to make rapid, contributions by connecting scientists through collaborative networks.

ONCE UPON A TIME research was stifled by a system that siloed researchers, preventing their collaboration and integration of new ideas by only publishing and sharing science through an antiquated system of long format publishing and inaccessible data. UNTIL ONE DAY A diverse team of scientists and innovators assembled in Banff to address the problem and reimagine a better way to share our r+i in a way that speeds up sharing and integration of ideas globally and gave birth to modular science. EVER SINCE THEN Scientific discovery has accelerated through this new platform that enables inclusive and continuous engagement across disciplines.

ONCE UPON A TIME It took people years to share what they learned in research & people didn’t like where the money used for research went. The hard drives were littered with half finished projects and the world was scary. UNTIL ONE DAY People decided to was okay to share a result they didn’t fully understand. A piece of the puzzle because they knew someone somewhere likely already had the missing piece, the matching piece. EVER SINCE THEN The world has been better off because far less knowledge obtained at great cost to the taxpayer was left on the Table & the process of science felt like humans building a puzzle, not working in isolation. And the public was better for it.

ONCE UPON A TIME boundaries of geography and time and format limited how scientific discoveries were shared slowing down the rate of progress. UNTIL ONE DAY Technology caught up to the true pace of discovery, opening up unforeseen communication and collaboration. EVER SINCE THEN scientific creativity is limitless in how it can shape our world and its true potential.