Open science is a policy priority for the European Commission and the standard method of working under its research and innovation funding programmes as it improves the quality, efficiency and responsiveness of research.
Section 1 Excellence of Horizon Europe RIA/IA proposals template asks: “Describe how appropriate open science practices are implemented as an integral part of the proposed methodology. Show how the choice of practices and their implementation are adapted to the nature of your work, in a way that will increase the chances of the project delivering on its objectives]. If you believe that none of these practices are appropriate for your project, please provide a justification here.”
EC definition of Open Science (OS): Open science is an approach based on open cooperative work and systematic sharing of knowledge and tools as early and widely as possible in the process. Open science practices include
- early and open sharing of research (for example through preregistration, registered reports, pre-prints, or crowd-sourcing);
- research output management;
- measures to ensure reproducibility of research outputs;
- providing open access to research outputs (such as publications, data, software, models, algorithms, and workflows);
- participation in open peer-review;
- and involving all relevant knowledge actors including citizens, civil society and end users in the co-creation of R&I agendas and contents (such as citizen science).
See below the list of mandatory and recommended OS practices
Open Access
Open access (OA) can be defined as the practice of providing on-line access to scientific information that is free of charge to the user and that is re-usable. 2 In the context of R&D, open access to 'scientific information' refers to two main categories: a) Peer-reviewed scientific publications (primarily research articles published in academic journals) b) Scientific research data: data underlying publications and/or other data (such as curated but unpublished datasets or raw data). European Commission requires beneficiaries of research and innovation funding to make their publications available in open access and make their data as open as possible and as closed as necessary.
Peer-reviewed scientific publications - articles and final manuscripts that were assessed by other scholars, typically organized by the journal or the publisher – are subjects to OA following two steps:
- Step one: Deposition in Institutional, subject-based or centralized repositories.
(When choosing a repository, consider the following listings as possible options, such as: ROAR, openDOAR, ROARMAP, etc.). - Step two: Ensuring Open Access to the publications through one of the available options: – “Green” or “Gold”. Choosing the right option for you largely depends on your overall dissemination, communication, & exploitation strategy, and availability of resources.
Green OA → an avenue referring to self-archiving, depending on an embargo period (if any). This option generally consists of providing access to scientific data through one of the following: the Horizon Europe research project’s direct website, the author’s website, the host institution’s website or an independent central open repository.
Gold OA → refers to paid archiving and the process of depositing scientific publications on websites and platforms that are not your own. Here the Open Access is immediate upon publication. Since the main premise of Open Access is that it is free, the payment is therefore handled by the author and not the reader. Within the execution phase of any Horizon Europe project, the associated costs of such publications are eligible for reimbursement as part of the Horizon Europe grant. Choosing the right option for you largely depends on your overall dissemination, communication, & exploitation strategy. Other new option: To assist with the Open Science requirements in Horizon Europe, the European Commission has recently launched a no-cost, full open-access, peer-reviewed publishing service, Open Research Europe.
Research data management
Under Horizon Europe, there will be more focus on research data management. Beneficiaries must include a Data Management Plan (DMP) for FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) research data. Data sharing must be as 'open as possible, as closed as necessary'. DMPs will need to be delivered within the first six months of the project start date. In comparison with Horizon 2020 - where applicants could opt out of the Open Research Data Pilot - in Horizon Europe, the DMP is mandatory for all parts of the programme (including the European Research Council). Additionally, the European Open Science Cloud will enable researchers across disciplines and countries to store, curate and share data.