VIDEO: The Impact of OPUS Project in Action

• August 13, 2025

The Open and Universal Science project was established to support the research and innovation community by changing the way researchers are assessed, and by incentivising and rewarding Open Science within research organisations.

This EU-funded project is being delivered by a consortium of eighteen organisations, led by PLOCAN, and has been running from 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2025, under an agreement with the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Structured around seven work packages, OPUS has not only sought to reward Open Science but also to foster a research culture where knowledge sharing is central to everything we do.

Within Work Package 1, Open Science State of the Art, we set out the broader context of the OPUS project in relation to the wider Open Science landscape. We mapped more than 40 European projects, 30 global and European initiatives, and a substantial body of literature, while engaging with over 150 experts. A key component of OPUS was the development of a Researcher Assessment Framework, a set of indicators and interventions designed to motivate and incentivise researchers to adopt Open Science practices, and to enable their assessment not only in project evaluations but also in career progression. These indicators cover activities such as research, education, leadership, and valorisation, forming a flexible ‘toolkit’ to help both research-performing and research-funding organisations reward their researchers more effectively. The aim is to move beyond recognition based solely on publications, or even more narrowly on metrics such as the H-index, impact factor, or the number of publications. We designed a practical framework of interventions, categorised as policy, resources, awareness, and training — to help pilot institutions implement the Researcher Assessment Framework (RA Framework) and OSCAM 2. OPUS selected five pilot organisations, three research-performing and two research-funding, to test these interventions over an 18-month period. The pilots achieved excellent results, often surpassing their targets. While the RA Framework requires further testing and additional piloting, the lessons from OPUS provide a strong foundation for other organisations seeking to advance Open Science practices and responsible research assessment.

Our work on policy within Work Package 5 is highly relevant not only to the European Research Area but also to UNESCO. The 2017 Recommendation on the Status of Scientific Researchers emphasises the need to open science to society in order to respond more effectively to societal challenges. It also highlights the importance of increasing diversity within the research community, ensuring that everyone has the right to participate in and benefit from science, in line with Article 27 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The insights gained from OPUS, together with case studies of how institutions implement Open Science action plans, will provide valuable policy support and advice for member states — not only across Europe but also globally, in implementing the UNESCO Recommendation on Science and the 2021 Recommendation on Open Science.

As one of its main achievements, OPUS is proud to present the revised Open Science Career Assessment Matrix 2, a key component of the Researcher Assessment Framework. This version places particular emphasis on indicators that incentivise and reward Open Science, encouraging researchers not only to be assessed more fairly but also to actively practise Open Science.