Universiteit Leiden

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Regieorgaan Open Science officially launched as Open Science NL

Fifteen knowledge institutions and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science have signed the covenant for Open Science NL. Leiden University has also joined the covenant, via the Universities of the Netherlands. This marks the start of the Dutch Research Council’s and brings the transition to open science in the Netherlands a step further.

The covenant contains further agreements on the establishment of Open Science NL by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The goal of Open Science NL is to further accelerate the transition to open science in the Netherlands. Organisationally, Open Science NL will be part of NWO, but will have broad-based governmence, in which all key parties in the field working together on this topic will give their perspective. The covenant was signed during a meeting at TU Delft that was entirely dedicated to open science.

Hans de Jonge, Director of Open Science NL, said, ‘I am pleased that 16 parties have agreed to sign. It shows that there is a lot of support for the Regieorgaan and also that open science is really alive. The signing marks the start of the next phase, in which we will develop innovative funding programmes to support and accelerate the high ambitions we have in the Netherlands.’

Feite Hofman signs the convenant

Academia in Motion

Within Leiden University, Open Science coincides with Recognition and Rewards in the Academia in Motion programme. This programme represents the transition to a university community in which quality, collaboration, an open academic culture, integrity and leadership are central. The governing group for Academia in Motion remains closely connected to the new national governing body, providing advice and feedback. The Leiden Open Science Community plays a very important role in this, but the group also involves Young Academy Leiden and the Leiden Research Support Network, and centres of expertise such as the Centre for Digital Scholarship and the Centre for Science and Technology Studies.

Minister Dijkgraaf informed the House of Representatives on 29 March about the creation of Open Science NL. In his parliamentary letter detailing all the developments about open science, he underlines the importance of open science, ‘To resolve the great challenges facing the world, it is crucial that the results of research and science are freely accessible. This seems obvious, but it is not always so: access to (publicly funded) research is regularly restricted. This is unfortunate because it creates inequalities in knowledge access. Anyone who is interested should have the opportunity to see and build on scientific results. This increases trust in science and improves the connection between scientists and society.

More impact

Open science staat voor de transitie naar een meer open en participatieve onderzoekspraktijk waarbij publicaties, data, software en andere vormen van wetenschappelijke informatie in een zo vroeg mogelijk stadium gedeeld worden en voor hergebruik beschikbaar gesteld worden. Open science leidt tot meer impact, zowel op wetenschap als op maatschappij. Minister Dijkgraaf maakte vorig jaar bekend de komende tien jaar forse extra investeringen te doen om de transitie naar open science een impuls te geven (20 miljoen euro per jaar). De besteding van die middelen zal lopen via het op te zetten regieorgaan Open Science NL.

Open science represents the transition to more open and participatory research practices with publications, data, software and other forms of scientific information being shared at the earliest possible stage and made available for reuse. Open science leads to more impact, both on science and society. Minister Dijkgraaf announced last year that he will make substantial additional investments over the next ten years to boost the transition to open science (20 million euros per year). These funds will be spent through Regieorgaan Open Science NL.

The covenant was signed by the open science partners NWO, UNL, NFU, VH, SURF, KNAW, NWO-I, ZonMw, UKB, KB, DANS, Netherlands eScience Center, 4TUResearchData, Health-RI and SHB, as well as by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

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