Research data and results are being increasingly shared earlier and more widely, even outside science. This enables more people to contribute to advances in science and healthcare. The scientific process is opening more and more. That is ‘Open Science’.

Open Science has been made possible by the arrival of digital technologies and new forms of collaboration. As a result, science has landed in an accelerated transition. More sharing can take place faster across country borders and sectors, and partnerships formed to solve complex societal and technological issues.

This is how Open Science works

The NFU participates in the Open Science National Programme, together with the VSNU, NWO, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW), ZonMw and SURF, among other partners. How did this programme originate? During the Dutch EU-presidency in the first half of 2016, Europe-wide agreements were made about Open Science and especially the 100% Open Access ambition (good access to scientific publications). The outcome of this presidency included the Amsterdam Call for Action. It proposed that every member state would develop a national plan for Open Science. At the start of 2017, this was established in the Netherlands (a new version is coming out in 2021). The Open Science National Program originated from this.

The NFU and its partners are committing themselves in the Open Science National Program to promote and coordinate the transition to Open Science via the following program lines:

  • Open Access: e.g. joint negotiations with publishers

  • FAIR data: making research data optimally suitable for use/reuse

  • Citizen Science: scientists and non-scientists conduct research together

Within all program lines, attention is paid to the boundary conditions enabling evaluation and assessment systems for researchers to connect to the field of: skills (stimulate and train), recognition & rewards, and metrics (making results measurable).

On 11 February 2021 the Open Science Festival took place, organised by the Open Science National Programme. Marian Joëls, dean of UMCG and director at the NFU, made an impassioned plea for Open Science. Click here for the video.



You can watch the plenary discussion at https://opensciencefestival.nl/. 

You can find inspiring presentations at Collection.