IN PREPARATION
Final Policy Brief
As a significant output of the OPUS project, the Final Policy Brief served as a comprehensive guide to policymakers, science managers, and other institutional leaders, presenting key lessons learnt and policy advice to support the uptake of Open Science practices at the institutional and individual researcher’s levels. This policy brief aims at extracting lessons from the five case studies implementing Open Science Action Plans so as to guide the research policy reform required to support the incentivisation, implementation, and evaluation of open science practices at the researcher level in European institutions.
On this last aspect, the OPUS project developed a Researcher Assessment Framework (RAF) to reward open science practices and expand beyond the criteria of publications in researchers’ career prospects, responding to emerging European and global policy agendas, in particular the UNESCO Recommendations on Researchers and Scientific Researchers (2017) and on Open Science (2021).
The brief also explores the relation between Open Science and incentives/rewards; precarity; gender equality; industry or trust in science, among other lessons from the implementation of Open Science interventions in both Research Performing and Research Funding Organisations in five EU countries.
SUMMARY
The transition to Open Science is not merely a technical or procedural shift—it is a cultural transformation, as claimed by scholars and UNESCO back in the 1970s, that requires sustained commitment and training, inclusive governance, and strong structural support.
The OPUS project has identified numerous good practices and key enablers. Participatory policy development, strong leadership, integration of OS into career assessment, and investment in training and infrastructure have all proven effective in advancing OS. However, the case studies have shown that while there is growing awareness and enthusiasm for OS, significant barriers remain. These include fragmented policy landscapes and misalignment between institutional, national, European/global policies; limited resources and skills; biases and resistance to change; and the precarious nature of research careers, particularly for early career researchers, women, and other underrepresented groups.
This brief calls on policymakers, institutions, and research communities and other societal groups to act decisively. By implementing the recommendations outlined here, stakeholders can accelerate the transition to a more open, inclusive, and equitable research system—one that not only enhances scientific excellence but also strengthens public trust and societal impact, which are core values of the European Union.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS
From the OPUS experience, it is clear that the institutional transition to Open Science is a complex, long-term process that requires coordinated action and coherence policy frameworks across the STI system, thus including all Quadruple Helix stakeholders and roles, from the individual researcher to the institutional, national, European and global levels.
In parallel to the adoption of more holistic Researcher Assessment Frameworks that incentivise and reward Open Science practices and culture, institutions should adopt and publish OS policies that enable clear instruments to a more diverse research community (gender and underrepresented groups inclusion). Policies are to be co-designed through participatory processes that involve researchers, support staff (i.a data stewards, librarians, managers, human resources and gender experts) and leadership. This is to ensuring that policies reflect the needs and realities of the whole institutional staff and research community-being daptable at disciplinary/faculty level.
Policies need to be operationalised through a clear set of interventions (OS action plans in OPUS), indicators and to secure long-term financial and human resources for their implementation. Institutions should advocate for stable funding mechanisms that support infrastructure development, training, and dedicated staff roles such as OS officers and data stewards- ideally with gender and diversity expertise or training. These roles should be formally recognised within institutional structures, with clearly defined responsibilities and allocated time/budget- including OS champions or advisory boards within the researchers´community.
Institutional policies should be supported and encouraged by national policies and plans to instrumentalise them in alignment with EU and global policy requirements. OS policy instruments should include an array of coordinated measures addressing the various challenges and levels of OS: regulatory frameworks with OS incentives, OS indicators in researchers and institutional national assessment systems, OS-dedicated funds and grants- for women and underrepresented groups in particular, incentives or tax reduction for hiring long-term OS-supporting roles (including women and underrepresented groups), OS awards, support to OS infrastructures and national repositories, training, exchange platforms, and others related to structural challenges to enable the OS transition, as stated in the 2021 UNESCO Recommendation on OS.
Long-term contracts and stable career paths- including caregiving supporting measures, especially for EMCRs and women-, are to be systematically mainstreamed and monitored/assessed in OS policies and the RAF. This should be started by enabling more diversity in the researchers community from underrepresented groups and regions (e.g. rural areas far from knowledge hubs) as to ensure their knowledge needs and research culture are embedded in the institutional science agendas. Furthermore, more open processes and diverse scientific communities can help in building societal trust in science and expand trust in evidence-based discourses and policies within the current geopolitical challenges (VERITY project, 2025)
Creating secure and supportive work environments can lead to stable and successful careers, particularly for women and underrepresented groups, as well as those in caregiving and early stages. Enabling stable contracts, reduced working hours, flexible schedules, telecommuting, and on-site childcare facilities, along with aid for OS and GE roles, dedicated research funding to develop customized, inclusive evaluation methods and metrics, as well as support funding for OS roles and research.
Gender equality and diversity must be embedded in all aspects of OS policy, from data collection and monitoring to training and leadership development. The mainstreaming of gender equality (and diversity inclusion) into the RAF and OS strategies at institutional, nation, and European assessment frameworks is a key step. Involving gender experts and EMCRs in the evaluation of Open Science policies, reviews of research projects, and participation in institutional bodies are some of the options.
Open Research and Innovation depends not only on diverse research teams but also on diversity in research methods and questions (Nielsen et al., 2018). Opening up the processes to non-academic stakeholders, gender and diversity associations, local communities, and industry is the best way to enable diverse research questions in institutional and national research agendas.
Research funding organisations (RFOs) proved to be key facilitators in the implementation of OS national plans and in facilitating exchange and awareness i.e through inter-institutional working groups, national and international, can play a key role in harmonising approaches and sharing best practices across the research system. Performance evaluation criteria for research calls should progressively include factors such as gender, OS and team diversity, data management plans (with gender-disaggregated data), open peer review, citizen science, and public communication and engagement practices.
Equally important is the role of intermediate organisations (i.e. libraries, museums, civil society organisations, science communicators, industry associations, etc.) in enabling public engagement, core to OS practice. Industry partners and other stakeholders should be actively involved in research initiatives and policy-making at both national and EU levels to foster open collaboration and innovation among all participants in the Quadruple Helix and to raise awareness of its benefits through targeted outreach efforts. Additionally, similar actions should be taken in industry, including the creation of open science policies, roles, and training to increase capacity and understanding of open science, which should be encouraged through policy incentives.
TAKE AWAY MEASURES for Institutional OS Transitions
1. Reform the Researcher Assessment Framework (RAF)
- Co-design and publish formal OS RAF/OSCAM rewarding diverse researcher´s activities and embedding Gender equality (GE) and diversity and adaptable to disciplinary/faculty cultures
- Develop OS awareness and capacities in all profiles related to the hiring and progression of researchers institutional processes.
- Support the reform of the national assessment frameworks towards more OS practices
2. Develop policies to incentivise Open Science (OS)
- Co-design OS long-term policies and action plans (with concrete activities, budget and deadlines) that are in alignment with national, EU, and global frameworks.
- Ensure participatory design and implementation, involving leadership and all OS related staff (researchers, technical staff and OS/GE experts, managers, human resources, evaluators, etc.)
- Integrate external stakeholders from the QH, including industry, into OS policy development to integrate their research and innovation needs and support effective public engagement.
- Include specific OS criteria and the participation of diverse groups of stakeholders (civil society and industry) in the access to institutional/national competitive funds.
- Promote mutual learning and exchange through i.a. inter-institutional working groups, advisory boards or supporting platforms at national, EU and global levels for mutual learning and policy harmonisation.
3. Address the precarity of researchers' careers.
- Develop institutional and national policies to support the retention and progression of EMCRs e.g. stable contract for permanent OS/GE roles, co-develop more adequate and longer funding schemes, integrate EMCRs into institutional and national OS initiative with leadership roles
- Promote dialogue and trust-building with senior researchers, human resources staff and external evaluators to reshape the research culture and its assessment
- Tie funding mechanisms to institutional adoption of responsible assessment principles, ensuring coherent implementation at the hiring and promotion levels.
4. Gender Equality (GE) and diversity inclusion key in the OS approach
- Embed gender equality and diversity in OS RAF, policies and training mitigating career penalties for interruptions and caregiving, through explicit policies that adjust productivity expectation and evaluation timelines and supporting measures (e.g. flexible working hours, telework options, special leave, etc.).
- Involve gender and diversity experts in the evaluation of OS policies, projects, and institutional research agendas to integrate their views and needs into research methods and questions.
- Improve granular and disaggregated data collection at all levels and institutions (RPOs and RFOs) and perform specific research on OS and gender in particular and to monitor, intersectional inequalities and design effective measures to fight precarity, inequality and discrimination bias in organisations at all scales.
- Allocate expert roles, governance and resources for inclusive practices and gender/diversity training and awareness, in particular to assessment committees.