Open Access in Sweden moving beyond transformative agreements

In our latest Open Voices blog post we talked to to Wilhelm Widmark, Library Director at Stockholm University Library, about the Open Access strategy of Swedish universities and research institutes who are organised in the Bibsam Consortium.

Wilhelm and his colleagues in Sweden have been thinking hard about how to move beyond transformative agreements, which might involve walking away from some deals! Read the full interview with Wilhelm here: https://hardimanlibrary.blogspot.com/2023/09/wilhelmwidmark.html


New blog post on Open Science training from OSCG member Rory Coyne

In this Open Voices blog post we are talking to Rory Coyne about Open Science training! Rory is a PhD student in Health Psychology at the University of Galway. He completed the Bachelor of Arts in Psychology at University of Galway in 2020, and the Master of Science in Health Psychology at University of Galway in 2021. His research interests are in the areas of digital health, psychophysiology, and human-machine interaction. Rory is also actively involved in the promotion of Open Science practices in research, and is a committee member on the European Health Psychology Society’s Open Science Special Interest Group.

You can read the interview with Rory on the Hardiblog of the University of Galway Library: https://hardimanlibrary.blogspot.com/2023/09/rory-coyne.html


Here’s what Fotis Mystakopoulos got from participating in the INOSC Open Science Community Incubator Program

I had the privilege to participate in the 2023 Spring Edition of the Incubator Program, an initiative funded by Skills4EOSC and AURORA Alliance and run by the International Network of Open Science & Scholarship Communities (INOSC).

In this short piece, I wanted to reflect on the experience of the Incubator Program and the lessons learnt.

Globe with local Open Science Communities depicted as flowers

Open Science: a new horizon for research culture

Before we talk about the program, it’s important to note that I am a librarian by degree. Libraries and librarians have always been supportive of the honest intentions of the Openness movement, starting with Open Access (OA) two decades ago, and now that movement has been expanded to include more than OA in research articles. I, too, subscribe to the belief that openness (and its derivatives – transparency, integrity, collaboration, equity, the list goes on…) is beneficial to the reputation of science and important to the scientific method itself. Therefore, Open Science has become the core of my work and I am trying to find ways to contribute to this ongoing change of research culture. So why the Incubator program?

Incubator Program: a how-to guide for creating a community.

Being a librarian for the better part of a decade in the UK, I’ve learned to appreciate the importance of being part of a community. The value of an organized network rests with its ability to tackle challenges in a cooperative fashion. That’s where you identify colleagues with the expertise to support you in your journey, and it is exactly what I needed at the time that I applied for the program. Working as a research data manager, I was learning about the policies governing open science in projects funded by the European Commission through Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe. I had a lot of questions about how to write reports for Data Management Plans, and how to structure research data management activities for large consortiums, and as such I felt the need to turn to a network of people much like the CILIP community I was part of in the UK. Alas, I was not able to locate the network of people to reach out to, and I decided to explore options of creating one! The caveat here is that of course there are networks out there that cater to the different needs of the researchers, but as a support staff myself, I wanted to feel again that I belonged to a community that shared the same values and beliefs as I did, and together to do our work of supporting researchers.

After a bit of searching and asking around, I came across INOSC. My timing couldn’t be better, and I was lucky enough to be included in this small cohort of participants for the Spring program in 2023. How would I summarise the Incubator program? I would say that its essence lies in nurturing skills for individuals that are invested in Open Science giving participants the tools to create a local Open Science Community. It is not a simple process, and it requires devotion and perseverance on the participant’s part to make this happen. Having said that, the incubator program provided us with more than enough tools, resources, and guidance through regular meetings on how to start a community in our own institution, and further how to maintain them. The challenges around growth, added value, and sustainability remain, but this is the work that needs to be done. What were taught can be can be found at the INOSC website, but here is a list of the modules:

  1. Mission and Vision
  2. Community Engagement
  3. Communication Strategy
  4. Stakeholder Engagement
  5. Governance and Sustainability
  6. Open!

Program Structure

The program lasted 3.5 months. We had weekly meetings of about 2 hours each, and during those meetings half of them were devoted for instructional materials and exercises presented and delivered by Anita Eerland and Loek Brinkman who were running this iteration of the program, and half of the meetings were catch up sessions between the participants to track progress.

The sessions were well structured, and I quite enjoyed the silent note taking exercises at the end of each part of the session (either at the end of the hour, or at the end of the 2nd hour of the session). This is where we were encouraged to write our thoughts positive and negative about our experience, and seeing the shared document being filled with ideas and comments from the participants was exciting and very emotional to see how everyone was experience the journey, and how individuals from different backgrounds actually shared similar ideas and thoughts with you about the Open Science movement. Lots of excellent advice was shared in these documents and I still revisit the documents for inspiration.

How we stayed in touch in between sessions? INOSC as a whole maintains a Slack workspace and a specific channel was created for the incubator program participants. While not heavily used it did allow us to share links and news about various activities and helped with creating a stronger bond between participants. Of course, the channel is still active and for example, a kind colleague shared a contact with me that would help me with setting up my own community in Athens.

There were plenty of useful exercises and materials for us to use and review, but the most essential document of it all was the Master Plan Template for creating a community that we had to develop during the program. The benefit is that at the end of the program you have a tangible plan to follow (including a minimum viable community checklist) and a lot of notes and ideas across the various modules on how to organize and progress with setting up your community. Which is what I need to do next!

Something that is very hard to capture in these paragraphs is the actual feeling of participating in something bigger than ourselves, the moments where we connected with participants through our mutual and also different challenges. Being able to share what makes my position unique through the cultural variable of where I live and work. We were often put in small groups to discuss exercises, and so many times the combination of ideas produced an actually coherent response that could be adopted by various people of the program. Anita and Loek were always there to nudge us toward new ways of thinking about our problems (how to attract members, how to seek funding, how to set up events) and asking us meaningful questions that would allow us to rethink our approach on a certain situation. I am grateful to every participant that was with us on this cohort, as they showed us how to be positive and how to work on our intentions to create Open Science communities.

Open Science Community – Athens (OSCA)

The most valuable experience has been to meet people from various parts of Europe (in this case) and see how passionate everyone is and what challenges everyone faces. And in creating a community here in Athens where I am now based, my hope is to meet like-minded people and for us to find ways to implement Open Science practices.

I am committed to starting the Open Science Community in Athens and put this city on the wonderful map that INOSC is proudly demonstrating on their website.

Logo of Open Science Community Athens

Part of this journey is to find people that are equally committed and passionate about Open Science and for us to figure out how to shape the community. This post is also an open invitation for anyone from the Greek research community who wishes to support setting up the community with me. This endeavor requires a group of people to deliver on the organizational aspects necessary to achieve success in relation to the vision and mission of the community.

What do you need to start a community?

If I could choose three things for anyone wishing to start an Open Science Community, that would be:

Passion. Running and participating in a community requires each and every one of us to devote time that we normally don’t have. Unless you are passionate about it, very little will come of it.

Support. You’ll need the support of the people from INOSC as they are experienced in supporting many communities. However, make sure you have the support of your local team at the place of employment so you can be afforded time to develop that community.

Open Science Community Starter Kit. While passion and support can take you a long way, you’ll need specifics. The starter kit will provide with a narrative on the why of your community and how to get started.

Open Science at its core, like any other worthwhile initiative is driven by people and individuals passionate enough to change things and do something of their own volition by volunteering their time. I feel privileged and honoured to be able to associate myself with INOSC and beyond that to have found a path to contribute to the paradigm shifting era that we are undergoing in terms of how science is documented and organized for our modern times.

Author: Fotis Mystakopoulos (ORCiD), Project Policy Officer, OPERAS Research Infrastructure (fotis.mystakopoulos@operas-eu.org)

OpenFest2023

OpenFest is the University of Sheffield’s flagship celebration and exploration of open research, providing an opportunity to explore current issues, share experiences, and consider how open research can be applied in your discipline. 

Register for our OpenFest events using the links below.

Workshop on GitHub for academic collaboration

Monday 4th September, 10.00-12.00, in person

Led by Robert Smith (School of Health and Related Research, University of Sheffield)

This workshop for researchers at the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University will provide a straightforward look at how GitHub can enhance academic collaboration, and a practical introduction to using GitHub and other tools in academic settings. The workshop will cover:

  • The benefits of GitHub for academic collaboration
  • Setting up RStudio with Git and GitHub
  • How to collaborate with colleagues on projects in script-based programming languages (e.g. R)
  • Where to find more information – online resources and courses

Note: Delegates will require R and RStudio (https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/) and Git (https://git-scm.com/downloads) to be installed on their laptops before the session if they want to follow the examples in real time.

Refreshments will be provided.

Register for the event (in-person attendance) here.


OpenFest Sheffield Showcase

Wednesday 6th September, 09.30-17.00, in person with hybrid capability

Featuring keynote speakers and talks from both of the Sheffield universities, this event for researchers and colleagues in research-related roles at the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University will provide a valuable opportunity to discuss and explore open research practice at the two institutions.

We will examine current initiatives which are building momentum around openness and explore the application of open practices in varying methodological contexts. The event will culminate in a drinks reception and launch of the Open Scholarship Community Sheffield, an inclusive, supportive, and active community for researchers to interact, share knowledge, and encourage good practice around open research.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

View the full programme and register for the event here.


Online symposium ‘New Perspectives on Open Research’

Thursday 7th September, 09.00-17.00

Featuring keynote talks from Martin Eve (Crossref / Birkbeck, University of London) and Malvika Sharan (The Turing Way), this event creates space for researchers across the UK and internationally to explore emerging perspectives and practices within the field of open research. 

We’ll explore how projects and institutions are reshaping open research infrastructures and reimagining platforms and tools. Panel discussions will address emerging and ongoing issues with the potential to shape our future practice and discourse around open research.

Keynote talks:

Against Austerity

Prof. Martin Paul Eve (Crossref / Birkbeck, University of London)

Arguments for open access are usually split along two axes: the educational and the financial. On the former, it is easy to see that the progress of science and scholarship is advanced by easy, free access to research. A more equitable system of educational access benefits everyone. However, on the second front, it is also argued that open access should be less expensive for libraries, signalling the end of the serials crisis. In this talk, using data from 7 million article records, I examine the publishing practices of scholarly publishers at different levels of revenue, clearly showing that professional publishers, with high levels of revenue, consistently perform better at tasks such as digital preservation. While remaining committed to not-for-profit and mission-driven solutions, I argue that there are more important challenges for open access publishing than merely reducing costs.

Open science for enabling reproducible, ethical and collaborative research: Insights from The Turing Way

Dr Malvika Sharan (The Turing Way, The Alan Turing Institute)

In this talk, I will discuss open science as a framework to ensure that all our research components can be easily accessed, openly examined and built upon by others. I will introduce The Turing Way – an open source, open collaboration and community-driven guide to reproducible, ethical and inclusive data science and research. Drawing insights from the project, I will share best practices that researchers should integrate to ensure the highest reproducible and ethical standards from the start of their projects so that their research work is easy to reuse and reproduce at all stages of the development. All attendees will leave the talk understanding the many dimensions of openness and how they can participate in an inclusive, kind and inspiring open source ecosystem as they collaboratively seek to improve research culture. All questions and contributions are welcome at the GitHub repository: https://github.com/alan-turing-institute/the-turing-way.

View the full programme and register for the event here.


Workshop on Re/defining open research values

Friday 8th September, 10.00-12.00, in person

What are the values that inform our open research practice? Are there different and potentially more productive ways to define these, with implications for the way we conduct and communicate research? This workshop for researchers at the University of Sheffield and Sheffield Hallam University will bring together researchers and research-adjacent colleagues from a range of disciplinary backgrounds to enable a cross-disciplinary conversation about open research values.

Introductory talks from a range of speakers, including those from qualitative methodological backgrounds, will be followed by activities to identify and finesse a set of alternative concepts through which we might reframe the values of an open research culture, e.g. vulnerability, generosity, radicalism, anti-hierarchy, notions of the gift. This will be followed by collaborative exploration of ways to enact these values at a practical level, focusing on those within the powers of ourselves and our institutions. 

Refreshments will be provided.

Register for the event (in-person attendance) here.

INOSC at the annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science (APS)

We were happy to have been given the opportunity to represent the international network of open science communities at the 2023 annual convention of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) in Washington D.C. Alexandra Sarafoglou (coordinator of OSCA) was invited to speak about the importance of grassroot communities in the symposium titled “Open Science 2.0: Moving Beyond Statistical Reforms to Improve Psychological Science”.

Alexandra highlighted the main challenge in adopting open science practices: engaging the academic community across disciplines and beyond the open science bubble. Researchers are at the center of the transition to open science, and it is the academic community that ultimately sets the norms and standards in the field. Open science communities can address these challenges by promoting open science practices among researchers, making them visible and accessible. They also advocate for the research community’s needs and can articulate them to policy makers at both local and national levels, as seen in the Netherlands. Drawing from these experiences, Alexandra advocated the establishment of open science communities in more institutions.

The symposium, chaired and organized by Eiko Fried, and emphasized not only the significance of grassroot initiatives but also highlighted the need to prioritizing diversity (speaker: Sakshi Ghai), education (speaker: Flavio Azevedo), and theory formation (speaker: Donald Robinaugh) when moving toward cumulative, global, and truly open psychological science. The symposium slides are openly available and can be accessed on: https://osf.io/u7wba/


We are truly inspired by the amazing work from our fellow speakers and the great open science initiatives that were represented at the conference. In particular, we would like to shout out the great work done by team members of the FORRT project which aims to advance open science through pedagogical reform and meta-scientific research (Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training; https://forrt.org) and by team members of the CREP project which provides training, support, and professional growth opportunities for students and instructors completing replication projects (Collaborative Education and Replication Project; https://www.crep-psych.org).

OSC-NL at the Dutch EOSC Tripartite Event

Eduarda Centeno (OSC Amsterdam), representing OSC-NL, attended the first national Tripartite event in the Netherlands on April 11th, which focused on the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and how to connect stakeholders to the infrastructure being created in the context of Open Science in Europe. The event was hosted by SURF, OCW, and EZK ministries and brought together around 50 attendees, including representatives from researchers, Open Science programs, Digital Competence Centers, funding organizations, and delegates from national governments, the European Commission, the EOSC steering board, and the EOSC association.

During the first panel, Eduarda discussed the importance of Local and Thematic Digital Competence Centers and their challenges in the Dutch landscape. Eduarda shared her experience as a researcher trying to implement Open Science practices at the VUmc in Amsterdam and the challenges she faced in finding relevant resources and training. She highlighted the gap between top-down policies, infrastructure/training, and day-to-day implementation by researchers, who often do not understand how to change their practices according to the new directives nor have the time to do so. She explained how her strategy was to become a member of the OSCA board and try to be closer to the Open Science community around her. The OSCA gave her access to relevant information, training, and networking opportunities throughout the Netherlands, which helped her immensely to streamline her search towards adequate solutions.

Eduarda stressed the need for policymakers to recognize OSCs as critical allies in bridging the gap between top-down decisions and the bottom-up reality of researchers and educators. She argued that it is crucial to fund these communities sustainably rather than relying on volunteer efforts from community board managers. By investing in OSCs, policymakers could establish a mutually beneficial relationship with stakeholders, ultimately improving the effectiveness of Open Science infrastructure. Eduarda emphasized the potential of OSCs to help bridge the gap between higher-up projects and policies with the reality of researchers and educators, ultimately merging the needs of the different stakeholders.

In conclusion, on behalf of the OSC-NL, Eduarda’s point of view was that Open Science infrastructure and training are crucial for modern scientific research. However, it must reach the target audience to realize its potential. OSCs are vital in connecting researchers and educators to the infrastructure tailored to their needs. Funding these communities would be a great step towards merging the needs of the different stakeholders, and policymakers must engage with OSCs to ensure policies are effectively communicated and implemented.

More on the event here: National Tripartite Event Netherlands | EOSC Association

OSC-NL at the LCRDM Networking Day

On November 1st the LCRDM networking day took place in Utrecht where we as OSC-NL also participated. The networking event was mainly focused on research data management but also had an event that was specifically aimed at communities in the Netherlands. During the “Meet the Communities” event we met many familiar faces – for example DANS Data Stations were represented, SURF and 4TU.ResearchData who organise the Dutch Data Prize. 

We were also particularly happy to meet initiatives that emerged from the bottom up and that we ourselves were not yet aware of, such as, Young Science in Transition (https://scienceintransition.nl) in which early career researchers at the Utrecht UMC engage in topics of recognition and rewards and open science or the national postdoc network (https://www.postdocnl.com). In this sense, this meeting was particularly successful as we found great new connections.

Open Science Communities and Universities of Applied Science: Strengthening the connection – PART I

On May 13th 2022, representatives of several Dutch Open Science Communities (OSC) and Universities of Applied Science (UAS) got together online to discuss how to foster collaboration and integration of OSC and UAS*. The premise being that OSCs have evolved from, and cater primarily to, Universities, while Open Science is a topic that is just as relevant for and pressing at UASs. OSCs have always indicated to be open for collaboration with others, including UAS, but little effort has been put in including or collaborating with UAS. As a result, the interaction between the ‘Open Science bubbles’ at OSC’s and UAS is limited. In this meeting, we explored what could be gained by collaborating more and how this could be achieved.

Open Science at Universities and UAS: more overlap than differences 

To establish common ground and identify opportunities, we started off by exploring the overlap and differences between the current status and ambitions regarding Open Science practices for universities and UAS, respectively. As it turned out, there is much more overlap than there are differences. Open Access publishing, sharing of FAIR data, code and software, preregistration and transparent reporting are topics that are of equal interest to Universities and UAS, and are central topics in all OSCs. 

The differences that exist, actually create learning opportunities, rather than that they set us apart. For example, Universities and UAS differ in the extent to which science and society are connected. At universities, crossing the gap between fundamental research and knowledge utilisation is one of the challenges in institutional Open Science programs. For UAS, this comes naturally, as their research commonly involves societal stakeholders by default. Here, Universities can learn from UAS. 

Another example is Open Access publishing. Researchers at UAS more often publish in professional journals, instead of academic journals, where Open Access is less common. It is worthwhile to explore how Open Access models that work for academic journals translate to professional journals. 

Lastly, it is important to note that incentive structures for career advancement differ between Universities and UAS, creating a different context in which the transition to Open Science takes shape. Both could benefit from exploring how incentives relate to the quality and impact of research output, and how these can be optimised. As such, much is to be gained by fostering collaboration and integration of UAS in OSCs.

Interactions between OSCs and UAS are scarce

At the moment, the most active involvement of an UAS in OSCs is that of the Amsterdam UAS in the OSC-Amsterdam, the latter being a community for the UvA, VU and AUAS. The interaction consists of advertising events and initiatives amongst these three member sections, but so far this leads to members attending each other’s events only occasionally. A similar situation occurs in Twente, where OSC-Twente advertises Open Science related events of Saxion, and vice versa – although the two are not formally associated with one another. Also here, the attendance by people other than the organisers is very limited. At all other places, there is little to none interaction between OSCs and UAS. Why is this the case and what can we do to overcome this?  

How to foster collaboration and integration of OSCs and UAS

The first suggestion is that researchers at UAS may feel that joining an OSC (or events organised by OSCs) is ‘not for them’. The first thing to do is to check and revise the text of the OSC websites, including the Guiding Principles and the Code of Conduct, so that it explicitly speaks to employees of both Universities and UAS alike. 

Another suggestion is to feature both University and UAS logos on OSC websites. In principle, this would be a strong signal that employees of both Universities and UAS are welcome. However, in principle, OSCs don’t feature University logos, to emphasise their independence from institutional Open Science programs. The pro’s and con’s of these approaches need to be considered before taking action. 

The current OSCs don’t grow if not for the continuous effort of the local OSC coordinators. Promotional activities within UAS are needed to inspire UAS employees to join their local OSC. Such activities are most effective when the ‘sender’ of the message is from within the organisation. To this extent, it would be beneficial to have representatives from UAS’ being part of the core team of local OSCs and ask (future) UAS members of OSCs to actively spread the word within UAS.

Regarding events, it was the experience at OSC-Utrecht, that events organised for a specific target group (e.g. Open Access for the Life Sciences) attracted more attendees than University wide events. Following this line, OSCs could organise events specific for employees of UAS  (and faculty-specific within each UAS) and/or integrate speakers from UAS at larger events (e.g. symposia) organised by OSCs. This again signals that researchers from UAS are part of the target audience for OSC.

Call to action

To summarise, collaboration and integration of UAS and OSCs are likely to be mutually beneficial, but work needs to be done to put this to practice. We hereby call all OSC coordinators and those involved in Open Science at UAS to reach out to each other, to discuss the aforementioned actions. In parallel, the national board of Open Science Communities (OSC-NL) will discuss with the Digital Competence Centre Praktijkgericht Onderzoek (DCC-PO) how best to proceed. A similar meeting will be organised half a year from now to evaluate progress and set new goals. 

*On behalf of the OSC’s, representatives from OSC-Twente, OSC-Nijmegen and OSC-Utrecht were present, as well as from the national OSC-NL board. On behalf of the UAS, representatives of the HvA and Saxion were present, and offline contributions were provided by representatives from the HU.

Open Science Communities and Universities of Applied Science: Strengthening the connection – PART I

On May 13th 2022, representatives of several Dutch Open Science Communities (OSC) and Universities of Applied Science (UAS) got together online to discuss how to foster collaboration and integration of OSC and UAS*. The premise being that OSCs have evolved from, and cater primarily to, Universities, while Open Science is a topic that is just as relevant for and pressing at UASs. OSCs have always indicated to be open for collaboration with others, including UAS, but little effort has been put in including or collaborating with UAS. As a result, the interaction between the ‘Open Science bubbles’ at OSC’s and UAS is limited. In this meeting, we explored what could be gained by collaborating more and how this could be achieved.

Open Science at Universities and UAS: more overlap than differences 

To establish common ground and identify opportunities, we started off by exploring the overlap and differences between the current status and ambitions regarding Open Science practices for universities and UAS, respectively. As it turned out, there is much more overlap than there are differences. Open Access publishing, sharing of FAIR data, code and software, preregistration and transparent reporting are topics that are of equal interest to Universities and UAS, and are central topics in all OSCs. 

The differences that exist, actually create learning opportunities, rather than that they set us apart. For example, Universities and UAS differ in the extent to which science and society are connected. At universities, crossing the gap between fundamental research and knowledge utilisation is one of the challenges in institutional Open Science programs. For UAS, this comes naturally, as their research commonly involves societal stakeholders by default. Here, Universities can learn from UAS. 

Another example is Open Access publishing. Researchers at UAS more often publish in professional journals, instead of academic journals, where Open Access is less common. It is worthwhile to explore how Open Access models that work for academic journals translate to professional journals. 

Lastly, it is important to note that incentive structures for career advancement differ between Universities and UAS, creating a different context in which the transition to Open Science takes shape. Both could benefit from exploring how incentives relate to the quality and impact of research output, and how these can be optimised. As such, much is to be gained by fostering collaboration and integration of UAS in OSCs. 

Interactions between OSCs and UAS are scarce 

At the moment, the most active involvement of an UAS in OSCs is that of the Amsterdam UAS in the OSC-Amsterdam, the latter being a community for the UvA, VU and AUAS. The interaction consists of advertising events and initiatives amongst these three member sections, but so far this leads to members attending each other’s events only occasionally. A similar situation occurs in Twente, where OSC-Twente advertises Open Science related events of Saxion, and vice versa – although the two are not formally associated with one another. Also here, the attendance by people other than the organisers is very limited. At all other places, there is little to none interaction between OSCs and UAS. Why is this the case and what can we do to overcome this?  

How to foster collaboration and integration of OSCs and UAS

The first suggestion is that researchers at UAS may feel that joining an OSC (or events organised by OSCs) is ‘not for them’. The first thing to do is to check and revise the text of the OSC websites, including the Guiding Principles and the Code of Conduct, so that it explicitly speaks to employees of both Universities and UAS alike. 

Another suggestion is to feature both University and UAS logos on OSC websites. In principle, this would be a strong signal that employees of both Universities and UAS are welcome. However, in principle, OSCs don’t feature University logos, to emphasise their independence from institutional Open Science programs. The pro’s and con’s of these approaches need to be considered before taking action. 

The current OSCs don’t grow if not for the continuous effort of the local OSC coordinators. Promotional activities within UAS are needed to inspire UAS employees to join their local OSC. Such activities are most effective when the ‘sender’ of the message is from within the organisation. To this extent, it would be beneficial to have representatives from UAS’ being part of the core team of local OSCs and ask (future) UAS members of OSCs to actively spread the word within UAS.

Regarding events, it was the experience at OSC-Utrecht, that events organised for a specific target group (e.g. Open Access for the Life Sciences) attracted more attendees than University wide events. Following this line, OSCs could organise events specific for employees of UAS  (and faculty-specific within each UAS) and/or integrate speakers from UAS at larger events (e.g. symposia) organised by OSCs. This again signals that researchers from UAS are part of the target audience for OSC. 

Call to action

To summarise, collaboration and integration of UAS and OSCs are likely to be mutually beneficial, but work needs to be done to put this to practice. We hereby call all OSC coordinators and those involved in Open Science at UAS to reach out to each other, to discuss the aforementioned actions. In parallel, the national board of Open Science Communities (OSC-NL) will discuss with the Digital Competence Centre Praktijkgericht Onderzoek (DCC-PO) how best to proceed. A similar meeting will be organised half a year from now to evaluate progress and set new goals. 

*On behalf of the OSC’s, representatives from OSC-Twente, OSC-Nijmegen and OSC-Utrecht were present, as well as from the national OSC-NL board. On behalf of the UAS, representatives of the HvA and Saxion were present, and offline contributions were provided by representatives from the HU.

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