OS POLICIES

CoNOSC Members OS policies

Belgium

Belgium has been involved in Open Science for some years. Three entities within the International and Federal Cooperation Commission on Open Science (ICC-FCC Open Science) are mostly involved, by way of funding research. The ICC-FCC Open Science also provides input when Belgium participates in international fora and other organisations.

One consulting entity is the Department of Economy, Science and Innovation, (EWI) from the Flemish Authority, and the Belgian Science Policy Office, BELSPO is another. The latter provides an Open Science philosophy and mandates for Open Access to Publications and to Research Data.

The Direction générale de l’Enseignement supérieur, de l’Enseignement tout au long de la vie et de la Recherche scientifique, (DGESVR), is the third consulting entity. It has an Open Science roadmap for 2020-2022, and a dedicated website underway. Its funding organisation, the FRS-FNRS, has already published their Open Access policy online.

Two other Flemish entities are involved in different ways. The Flemish Research Foundation made their Open Access mandate available. And, as of early 2022, the Flemish Authority’s Open Science Board (FOSB) has been drafting a comprehensive Open Science policy. 

Links:

Croatia

In 2016, the Ministry of Science and Education adopted the Plan for the European Research Area (2016-2020) (in Croatian only), containing the main guidelines for Open Science policy in Croatia. One of the Plan’s priorities was to establish a system of Open Access to existing and new public research infrastructure and equipment.

During 2021, the Initiative for Croatian Open Science Cloud (HR-OOZ) was established to encourage and enable Open Science. It will provide resources and services needed for data collection, processing and storage, enabling sustainable access and reuse and sharing of research data in the Republic of Croatia.

A draft version of the National policy and Open Science Plan will be available in 2022.

Czech Republic 

Approved by the Government in July 2020, the National Policy for RDI 2021+ already contains OS actions. Actions 8 and 13 focus on working toward the Open Access to R&D results, incl. data. This  includes the implementation of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). 

Action 8 needs a new Action Plan. Such a plan would succeed the Action Plan 2017–2020 (Czech only), although a timeline has yet to be established.

For the implementation of Action 13, a project, National Centre for Information Support of Research, Development and Innovation (NCIS RDI) (2021-2027) was initiated by the National Library of Technology (NTK). Its shared activities are: 

  1. Continuation of the  Czech National Centre for Electronic Information Resources (CzechElib) and the transition to Gold OA via transformative agreements,
  2. The National repository (supporting Green OA), 
  3. Activities connected to the implementation of European Open Science standards in Czech research. 

In addition, two complementary projects are underway, (2023-2027), under NTK and e-infra. The first focuses on improving accessibility and sharing e-resources and metadata support. The second will support the implementation of the EOSC and national data infrastructure.

Links:

Denmark

The Danish Ministry of Higher Education focuses on three key elements of Open Science but does not have a national Open Science strategy. The key elements are:

  • Open Access to scientific peer-reviewed publications – Denmark’s National Strategy for Open Access (2014)
  • FAIR research data – National strategy for data management based on the FAIR principles (2021)
  • Research Integrity: Danish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity (2014)

Priority areas and plans for 2022

Denmark’s National Strategy for Open Access aims to provide Open Access to all scientific publications from Danish universities in 2025. Every year, the Danish Open Access Indicator monitors the progress of Open Access at Danish universities. 2021 monitoring shows that 60 per cent of Danish scientific articles from Danish universities were OA. The National Strategy for Open Access will be evaluated in 2022.

National stakeholders such as universities and other research institutions have started implementing the national strategy for data management based on FAIR principles in 2022. Furthermore, a working group of national stakeholders, recently set up by the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science, will coordinate measures that require national coordination and monitor progress.

The Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science also plans to revise the Danish Code of Conduct for Research Integrity in 2022. This includes intending to update the Code with the recent developments in Open Science, including FAIR data.

Links:

Finland

Supported by the Open Science and Research Secretariat, the Finnish research community co-created the Declaration for Open Science and Research 2020-25. Four policies sustain the declaration: open access to publications, and to research data and methods, open education, and open scholarship. A policy suite will be completed by the end of 2022.

An open science and research monitoring tool is being developed to observe the success of strategic objectives.

Links:

Policies on Open Science in Finland

France

The 2016 law on a digital Republic inaugurated France’s open science policy. It set out the obligation to open up data from public research and authorizing researchers to disseminate their articles in open access. The current French Open Science policy is based on national plans for open science, led by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation. After the launch of the first Plan in 2018, the second Plan, which covers the period 2021-2024, addresses Open Science through four objectives: 

·         Making open access to publications the default

·         Structuring, sharing, and opening up research data 

·         Opening up and promoting source code produced by research

·         Transforming practices to make Open Science the default principle

One significant action of this plan is the creation of Recherche Data Gouv, a federated national platform for research data, including a data repository and a support network for research teams. The plan also emphasizes the need for diverse economic models for open access publishing, multilingualism, and the transformation of practices through training and reform to research assessment practice. 

France has created the National Fund for Open Science to contribute to the financing of its national open science policy. It issues calls for projects to strengthen open access publishing capacities and supports French and international open science infrastructures. The fund amounts to about 3 million euros per year.The Committee for Open Science brings together a wide range of French higher education and research stakeholders in various working and steering bodies and ensures the good governance and implementation of the national policy. More information can be found on the Committee’s website.

Links:

Germany

Open Science policies in Germany exist at the research organisation level. Within OS, Open Access strategies and policies are in place and being implemented at federal and state levels. In addition, the National Research Data Infrastructure Germany (NFDI) has been focussing on open/FAIR data. Other research data initiatives in the federal states are also underway. Plans are progressing to establish a German data institute.

Links and OS policy examples from institutions:

Selected links:

Greece

Open Science is well acknowledged and cultivated by leading research organizations in Greece that actively contribute to European developments, such as the realization of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). The pan-European infrastructure ‘OpenAIRE’ was established in Greece under the ATHENA Research Center’s coordination, providing support to more than 35 countries in Europe for more than 10 years.

At the national level, two working groups were set up to facilitate coordination of Open Science policy adoption activities:

  1. Top-down group of experts, set up in 2017 and coordinated by the General Secretariat of Research and Innovation (GSRI).
  2. Bottom-up initiative “Open Science Task Force”, set up in 2019 and coordinated by ATHENA RC, brought together 13 leading organizations and 25 research infrastructures and initiatives for Open Science.

In 2020, the Open Science Task Force (OSTF) published their collective proposal for a National Open Science Plan in Greece. The proposed Plan forms a comprehensive set of policies and actions for fostering the realization of the Open Science ecosystem in Greece. It informs about latest developments at national and European levels, highlights the strengths and dynamic of Greek stakeholders in the Open Science field and suggests commitments in the following areas: Open Access to Scientific Publications; Research Data Management and Sharing; Research Software Development and Management; Reinforcing the National Research Ecosystem; Open Science through National Research Infrastructures and Digital Services for Research; Integration or Alignment with the European Open Science and Innovation Ecosystem. Parts of this publication have been transposed into the Digital Transformation Strategy 2020-2025 of the Ministry of Digital Governance. 

To implement these plans, on 28th February 2022, thirteen Greek leading research, technology and innovation organizations that were initially members of the OSTF, signed a Memorandum of Understanding establishing the “Hellenic Open Science Initiative – HOSI”. The HOSI aims to implement Open Science policies in Greece and support the national representation and contribution to the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) in a coordinated and participatory way.

As regards institutional policymaking, all HOSI member organizations will adopt the National Open Science Plan and work towards their implementation. Additionally, HEAL-Link promotes policy activities through its library network in Greek universities. Currently, only two universities have an Open Access policy, including rules and provisions for research data: the University of Patras and Technical University of Crete.

Selected links

Hungary

Hungary’s first national level Position Paper on Open Science was published on 18 October 2021 by the National Research Development and Innovation Office (NRDI Office) advisory committee.

The NRDI Office is one of three main research funders in Hungary. The signatories include major associations of stakeholder groups in the country. An open call for more stakeholders to sign the document is ongoing. More activities will be planned to increase participation in the Open Science approach.

Personal and online workshops for public consultation on the Position Paper are scheduled for 2022. The aim is to advocate the basic ideas and values of OS. Gaining input on the paradigm shift in research culture is also part of the activities.

The NRDI will prepare a report and draft for a national Open Science strategy/policy by the end of 2022. 

Links to stakeholders:

Ireland

Ireland’s national objectives for open research were first outlined in the National Framework on the Transition to an Open Research Environment (2019). The National Framework was developed by Ireland’s National Open Research Forum (NORF), a group established to drive the Irish agenda for open research. 

Building on the National Framework, Ireland launched a National Action Plan for Open Research 2022-2030 in November 2022. The National Action Plan outlines objectives and actions for the next chapter in Ireland’s transition towards open research. The plan was prepared by NORF and supports national strategic priorities for research and innovation under Impact 2030: Ireland’s Research and Innovation Strategy.

The National Action Plan for Open Research serves as a roadmap for the implementation of open research across Ireland and is structured according to three broad themes:

  • Establishing a culture of open research
  • Achieving 100% open access to research publications
  • Enabling FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) research data and other outputs

Italy

Open Science practices (e.g. institutional repositories, institutional Diamond publishing, open research infrastructure) are quite well established in Italy, even though not in a systemic way. The landscape is fragmented and political support and general awareness is inconsistent.

In 2019 the Ministry started a co-ordinated approach to OS convening an inaugural working group which drafted the National Plan. It was then revised and finally published on 28 February 2022, as a Ministerial Decree of the “Piano Nazionale per la Scienza Aperta – PNSA” (Italian National Plan for Open Science INOS).

The National Plan is structured on 5 pillars – publications, data, research assessment, community engagement and COVID data.  The Decree (see attached links) contains a series of recommendations that closely match the current policies at European level, taking into account both official documents, recommendations and guidelines.

In May 2023, the Ministry of University and Research set up a technical working group. Its remit is to develop a document detailing the various actions and priorities needed to implement the PNSA (INOS) in all its facets.

This technical document, expected to be ready by October 2023, will be open to comments from the wider Open Science community of experts and stakeholders. This feedback will then be submitted to Italian decision-makers, in order to define the action plan needed to implement Open practices at national level and to make Open Science “the new norm” in Italy.

References

Latvia 

The Latvian National Open Science Strategy 2021-2027 (Latvian and a summary in English here) was adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers in March 2022. The strategy aims to provide society, researchers, businesses, policymakers, and other stakeholders with freely accessible scientific information. It will also promote meaningful societal engagement in the scientific research process.

The Open Science Strategy is structured around three pillars:

  1. Open Access to Scientific Publications: Addressing Open Access publishing practices and the national OS policy. All scientific publications produced for new state-funded research projects must be openly accessible in “green” or “gold” open access, without an embargo period.
  2. FAIR research data: Ensuring that research data be open by default, and that data, metadata and e-infrastructures intended for long-term preservation and reuse meet the FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) principles.
  3. Citizen Science: Encouraging co-creation in the context of citizen science activities. Supporting initiatives by, e.g. providing access to scientific e-infrastructures and integrating citizen science in Latvian science communication activities. Latvian stakeholders will be encouraged to participate in international initiatives and networks related to citizen science.

Malta

Malta adopted its first National Open Access Policy in December 2021. The Policy builds on the outcomes of the support that Malta received between 2019 and 2020 through the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Policy Support Facility (PSF) to develop a national Open Access policy. 

The National Open Access Policy 2021 presents a roadmap for Malta targeted at local Research Performing Organizations (RPOs), and Research Funding Organizations (RFOs). It focuses on different subject areas; namely, Open Access to scientific publications, Open Research Data under the principle of “as open as possible, as closed as necessary,” and related actions on awareness-raising, skills, training, and support as well as research and researcher assessment. The Policy defines concrete phases for each subject area, with activities at each phase developing experience, skills, and competencies and establishing infrastructure which becomes permanent and is exploited in successive phases. Through this approach, Malta developed a Policy that strikes a balance between an over-ambitious policy, which would not find the support of local stakeholders and an unambitious and uncontroversial policy that would not significantly improve the state of open access in Malta. The Policy envisages the implementation of the specific, recommended actions to be completed by the end of the year 2025. 

The policy implementation process commenced in 2022, with the priority areas and plans for 2022 being:

  • establishment of a strong governance structure to enable the necessary synergies
  • establishment and upgrading of relevant infrastructures, more dedicated funding and technical support
  • introduction of more and upgrading of existing training activities by relevant Maltese institutions
  • more awareness-raising of the benefits of practising Open Access. 

Links:

Netherlands

Since the launch of the National Plan Open Science in 2017, the Netherlands National Programme Open Science (NPOS) has led to greater collaboration and connectivity on a national level. In line with international initiatives like the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), its goal is to enable all national stakeholders to jointly transform science. Investments have been made on a local, domain and National level, strengthening networks and accelerating open practices in different domains.

In June 2022 the Minister of Education, Culture and Science announced that 20 million euros per year will be made available until 2032 to stimulate the transition to Open Science. In the context of these funds, a ‘National Initiative Open Science’ will be set up by NWO, the National funder. This body will not only oversee the 20M funds, but will also continue to facilitate the coordination and bundling of efforts of all main stakeholders.

To this end the NPOS2030 Multi-Annual Plan, which includes an Ambition Document and a Rolling Agenda, was drawn up. The strategic goals for this NPOS2030 Multi-Annual Plan are based on an open consultation of the entire field of stakeholders. The plan is in line with UNESCO’s Open Science Recommendation and the development of EOSC.

The efforts of the National Programme will stimulate the following developments:

Towards Societal Engagement and Participation (including Citizen Science):

close collaboration between knowledge institutions, government, industry, and citizens to strengthen the international position of Dutch science and optimise the processes of creating, sharing, and communicating knowledge for the benefit of society;

Towards Inclusive and Transparent Scientific processes:

inclusive, efficient, and transparent processes of scientific (co-)creation, evaluation, quality assurance and communication;

Towards Open Scholarly Communication:

the removal of barriers to reading and reusing all scientific output, so everyone can access scientific knowledge in a sustainable way and benefit from it;

Towards FAIR and Open Research Outputs:

products of and for knowledge creation, like data and software, being findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR), and open in as far regulations allow.

References

Norway

The Norwegian government first announced its goals and guidelines for Open Access to research publications in 2017. Open Science is part of Norway’s approach to research, education and innovation. Its policies are woven into the government’s overarching goal toward a well-functioning knowledge system. 

The country is on its way to making all publicly funded research openly available by 2024. This relates to sharing research data, and the need to reform the country’s framework for recognition and rewards. 

These items will be leading the discussion in the National Forum for Open Science 2022 agenda:

  • Building competence and infrastructure for FAIR data
  • Developing and implementing renewed practices for recognition and rewards.

Government representatives, HEIs, research institutes, funders, agencies and unions will also attend.
Links:

Romania

Ensuring the transition to open science and facilitating the road towards excellence in scientific research is part of the national Framework Document – National Strategy on Research, Innovation and RIS3. The national strategic recommendations for Open Science are included in the Objective 1.2. The draft framework is currently in the process of consultation and is pending approval.

The core recommendations refer to ensuring Open Access to all publicly-funded research publications, introducing DMP requirements (ensuring FAIR data) and, among others, supporting citizen science actions and establishing a mechanism to monitor and support the transition to OS. 

The process of developing the strategic framework for Open Science is supported by UEFISCDI and its team involved in the Open Science Knowledge Hub Romania, which acts as a national support desk for Open Science.

Other significant actions include:

In February 2020, a national OA portal for doctoral theses was developed. It stores over 10,000 theses from 2016 onwards.

In June 2021, UEFISCDI established the National Open Science Cloud Initiative (RO-NOSCI), together with the National Institute for Research and Development in Informatics:ICI Bucharest, and members of the EOSC Association. This was in the context of the project “NI4OS Europe – National Initiatives for Open Science in Europe“, and in co-coordination with the National Research-Development Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering “Horia Hulubei” (IFIN-HH).

RO-NOSCI represents a coalition of organizations at national level, functioning based on a Memorandum of Understanding without financial commitments. The aim of the initiative and plans for 2022 are related to optimizing and coordinating activities on integrating national infrastructures and services in the EOSC, facilitating access to the academic and research environment to EOSC resources, and promoting and implementing open innovation science policies at national level. 
The process of joining RO-NOSCI is open and applications for membership are submitted to the RO-NOSCI Executive Committee via an online form. Currently, there are 26 organisations who are part of the initiative. The list of members and observers can be consulted here (RO) or here (EN).

Links:

Slovakia

Slovakia has had its National Strategy for Open Science (2021-2028) since June 2021. It also includes an Action Plan for 2021-2022. The National Strategy aims to improve the availability of Slovakian science results and to change the research and evaluation system seeking higher transparency, reproducibility, and integrity. It aims to harmonize the development of Slovakian science and research with the 2012 EU recommendations on access to and preservation of scientific information and its 2018 update and with the Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe Guidelines on the rules of open access to scientific publications and research data. 

The National Strategy covers the following topics:

  1. Open access to publicly-funded publications
  2. Open access to scientific data
  3. The technical infrastructure for Open Science
  4. Open Science financing
  5. Protection of intellectual property rights
  6. Usage of existing open IT tools and open data
  7. Open Science education
  8. Evaluation of R&D with principles of Open Science
  9. Citizen Science support

The institutional OS policy landscape in Slovakia is under development. There are currently two academic institutions that have an institutional open science policy:

The Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information has been the National Reference Point for Open Access since 2013. We co-ordinate open science policy and provide support to academic and research institutions in Slovakia. SCSTI is a member of OpenAIRE, the EOSC Association and SPARC Europe. A draft version of the Open Science Policy Template for Slovak research institutions will be released in 2022.

Slovenia

Slovenia has been developing and maintaining its Open Science policies since 2015. The National Strategy of Open Access to Scientific Publication and Research Data in Slovenia 2015-2020 and its action plan were the first. The new Research and Innovation Strategy of Slovenia (RISS 2030) contains a section dedicated to OS and was adopted by the National Assembly in March 2022. 

On 1 January 2022, the new Research and Innovation Activity Act took effect. It includes important OS provisions. At the end of May 2023 the Government adopted the Decree on the Implementation of Scientific Research Work in Accordance with the Principles of Open Science for the operationalisation of this Act as well as related Action Plan for Open Science, based on the provisions of the 2030 Strategy.

As part of its Recovery and Resilience Plan, Slovenia stared several OS activities in 2023:

  • Supporting public research organisations in operating according to the principles of Open Science,
  • Building two research data repositories,
  • Upgrading the backbone network of public research organisations

Links:

Spain

The most recent Open Science national policy is the Science, Technology and Innovation Law where article Article 37 speaks directly to Open Science in the Science, Technology and Innovation Law.

The new law promotes the dissemination of the results of scientific, technological and Innovation activity and open access to research results such as scientific publications, data, code and methodologies. Those in the public sector who wish to disseminate their publicly funded results must deposit a copy of the final version accepted for publication (and associated data) in institutional or thematic open access repositories at the time of publication date.  Additionally, intellectual property rights must be retained in compliance with open access requirements. Those in receipt of public grants or subsidies must also ensure that they retain enough intellectual property rights to comply with OA requirements.

With regard to the new university law, specifically Article 12. Fostering Open Science and Citizen Science, to meet responsible research and innovation objectives, universities will need to make publications, data, codes and methodologies OA. Furthermore, both teaching and research staff must deposit a copy of the final version of the accepted publication and its associated data in institutional and thematic repositories at the time of publication. The policy also draws attention to calling for primary sources to be FAIR, that publisher agreements are made transparent and that infrastructures and open platforms be developed. The framework and emphasis was on knowledge being a public good.

Finally, the National Open Science Strategy ENCA 2023-2027, approved in May 2023, includes the commitments related to open science adopted by different public agents of the system, i.e. those included in the reform of the Law on Science, Technology and Innovation, approved in September 2022, Law 17/2022; the Spanish Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2021-2023; and the State Plan for Scientific Research, Technology and Innovation 2021-2022; in addition to a review of the international and national context in terms of open science. The ENCA strategic axes are: Digital infrastructures for open science, Management of research data following the FAIR principles, Open access to scientific publications and Incentives, recognition and training.

Five key documents contribute to the Spanish Open Science Policy

  • Spanish Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy 2021-2027  (EECTI)
  • Science, technology and innovation Law 17/2022, of 5 September, which amends Law 14/2011, of 1 June, on Science, Technology and Innovation
  • State Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2021-2023  Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación (PEICTI)
  • Organic Law 2/2023, of 22 March, on the University System. Ley Orgánica 2/2023, de 22 de marzo, del Sistema Universitario (University Law)
  • National Strategy for Open Science (ENCA), 2023-2027

Sweden

The Swedish Research Council is nominated by the government as the mandated organisation in the EOSC Association. Since April 2017, it has been coordinating the national work of introducing Open Access to research data. The National Library of Sweden was given the mandate to coordinate the introducing principles to promote OA to scientific publications. 

In April 2021, both assignments were updated and extended to promote their work. This included mapping, analysis and assessment, including OA to research data and scientific publications. Universities and Higher Education institutions took on a third assignment: to continue development work toward an OS system. 

According to the 2020 Research Bill, (Swedish only), the national direction is to complete the transition to OA to research data by 2026. The guiding principle is: “As open as possible, as limited as necessary.” 

Links

Switzerland

The Swiss Open Science policy centres around two aspects of Open Science: Open Access and Open Research Data.

The Swiss National Strategy on Open Access was adopted in 2017. It was created by swissuniversities and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). The goal and vision of the Action Plan is to have 100% of its publicly funded scientific publications available in OA by 2024. Together with the SNSF, swissuniversities offers scientists and scholars practical and financial support for the OA publication of their work. More information is available in the Swiss Open Access Implementation Plan adopted in 2021.

The Swiss National Strategy for Open Research Data (ORD) and Switzerland’s National Open Research Data Action Plan were set up in 2021. The plan specifies measures for the guiding principles and objectives defined in the ORD strategy. Open Access and Open Research Data activities are funded for the 2021-2024 period by the Swiss universities programme Open Science, the SNSF, the ETH Domain and the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences. The partner organisations are collaborating to implement the plan’s measures through the ORD Strategy Council.

Links:

Ukraine

Ukraine is actively working on the national OS policy despite the war.

In 2021 the Ministerial working group proposed Amendments to the Law of Ukraine “On Scientific and Scientific-Technical Activity” (Ukrainian only), including new and updated definitions of OS, open access, research infrastructure, etc. They were publicly discussed and sent for approval to Ukrainian central executive bodies in Nov 2021.

The Ministerial Working Group on the National Plan for OS Development released the draft plan in Nov 2021. As the next step, the Ministry of Education and Science launched the public discussion of the draft order of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, “On Approval of the National Plan of Activities for Open Science implementation till 2030” (Ukrainian only). The discussion was concluded on March 28, 2022, and the Ministry has recently started the approval procedure with other public bodies. 

Due to the current circumstances, most plans are likely to be postponed until 2023. However, several projects and volunteers are working on training materials on OS to be introduced in Ukrainian HEIs starting from autumn 2022.

Links:

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