Vision & Mission of OSC the Netherlands

The norms and practices in academia are shifting towards Open Science (OS). This shift is an ongoing process and involves universities, research funders, public administration and publishers. There is no doubt that OS is the way forward. However, different stakeholders have different views on what OS means. Hence, its practical implementation and the path towards a more open academic world is still unclear.

We believe that university staff are best suited to lead the path towards OS – those who put OS to practice. That is why local bottom-up Open Science Communities (OSCs) are crucial in this transition (see our white-paper). OSCs can articulate the opportunities and obstacles that researchers and other staff experience, while learning new skills and sharing knowledge.

In the Netherlands, all major universities have launched  OSCs – a good start! Now is the time to foster local OSCs, strengthen the national network and become more vocal. We focus on the following aims:

• Stimulate collaboration amongst Dutch OSCs 
  OSC-NL facilitates knowledge exchange amongst OSCs, e.g. by sharing success stories and good practices, to make local OSCs more effective. Also, OSC-NL stimulates and coordinates joint efforts of Dutch OSCs, e.g. joint events, projects or working groups. 

• Provide input to policy, infrastructure and services
  OSC-NL vocalizes the opportunities and needs as experienced by those who (aspire to) put OS to practice; as such it can be considered an ‘OS union’ in the Netherlands. By interacting with national stakeholders in the OS landscape (e.g. NWO, ZonMW, VSNU, OCW, etc.), OSC-NL provides input to policy, infrastructure and services.