OPUS Key Exploitable Results (KERs)

Key Outcomes and Results of the OPUS Project with Potential for Broader Organisational Exploitation

OPUS was structured around seven work packages (WPs) and aimed not only to incentivise and reward Open Science practices among researchers, but also to reform researcher assessment by expanding the recognition of activities beyond publications and publication metrics.

Over the three years of OPUS project implementation, a total of 26 deliverables were produced, among which we identified six Key Exploitable Results that can be directly utilised by other organisations.

Key Exploitable Result 1: OPUS Researcher Assessment (RAF)

Result Description

The OPUS project has developed a comprehensive set of indicators and metrics aimed at reforming how researchers are assessed in academic and research-performing institutions. This framework moves beyond traditional metrics such as publication counts and journal impact factors, instead offering a balanced and inclusive Researcher Assessment Framework (RAF) that formally recognises Open Science practices.

Key interventions include measures to assess:

  • Early and open sharing of research,
  • Open access to research outputs,
  • Engagement in open peer review,
  • Reproducibility of scientific results,
  • Participation of societal stakeholders in research co-creation. 

By embedding these indicators into institutional researcher assessment processes, the framework supports the transition toward a more responsible, transparent, and impactful research culture. The RAF enables RPOs and RFOs to incentivise and reward researchers for adopting Open Science practices, aligning with wider European objectives such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and the reform of research assessment.   

Type of Result
  • Framework / Policy Tool / Set of Metrics and Indicators 
Exploitation Potential
  • Designed for integration into institutional policies at RPOs/RFOs. 
  • Can be used in Horizon Europe-funded initiatives and by any stakeholder pursuing research assessment reform. 
  • Supports both strategic planning and operational execution of Open Science practices. 
  • Modular and adaptable to national and disciplinary contexts.
IPR or Legal Status
  • Ownership: Led by TGB with OPUS Consortium partners as authors  
  • Open access and freely available under Creative Commons (CC BY 4.0). 
  • No IP restrictions on institutional reuse or adaptation. 
Target Users/Stakeholders
  • Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) 
  • Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) 
  • Policymakers and ministries of research 
  • Universities and academic leadership 
  • HR departments and researcher evaluation committees 
  • National Open Science Coordinators 
Links and Resources:

Key Exploitable Result 2: Interventions for Open Science: Institutional Pathways to Reform Researcher Assessment and Support Open Science

Result Description

The OPUS project has developed a practical and adaptable suite of Interventions for Open Science that will enable institutions to embed Open Science principles into their researcher assessment processes. These interventions aim to support the wide-scale implementation of a wide range of indicators, from traditional metrics (e.g., number of publications, citations, and Journal Impact Factor) to a broader spectrum of research activities and societal contributions.

The interventions target all research practices, with a focus on Open Science where possible. For example:

  • Providing open access to research outputs
  • Early and open sharing of research results
  • Participation in open peer review
  • Ensuring research reproducibility
  • Involving stakeholders in co-creation and knowledge exchange

Designed to be implemented by Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) and Research Funding Organisations (RFOs), the interventions support the adoption of the Researcher Assessment Framework (RAF) developed by OPUS. This helps to ensure Open Science contributions are valued and incentivised across the research career path, fostering cultural and structural change in academia.

Type of Result

Policy Tool / Institutional Change Framework / Set of Interventions

Exploitation Potential
  • Supports policy reform and strategic implementation of Open Science
  • Flexible for adaptation across disciplines, institutions, and national contexts
  • Useful for RPOs, RFOs, ministries, and bodies reforming research assessment
  • Promotes alignment with initiatives such as CoARA, EOSC, and Horizon Europe’s Open Science mandates
Intellectual Property Rights
  • Copyright: Vitae
  • License: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0
  • Available via Zenodo: DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14672685
Target Users/Stakeholders
  • Research Performing Organisations (RPOs)
  • Research Funding Organisations (RFOs)
  • University leadership and HR departments
  • Research managers and coordinators
  • National Open Science platforms and policy developers
  • Members of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA)
Links & Resources

Key Exploitable Result 3: Tailored Action Plans to Implement Open Science in Pilots

Result Description

As part of its transformative mission, the OPUS project has developed and implemented a set of Final Action Plans to drive the adoption of Open Science (OS) across diverse institutional contexts and to implement the RAF. Each plan is designed to address the unique challenges, strategic goals, and stakeholder needs of the participating Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) and Research Funding Organisations (RFOs).

Though unified by a common framework, these action plans are tailored to ensure relevance and effectiveness. They encompass:

  • Scope and Cohort Selection: RPOs often focus on specific target groups like early-career researchers, while RFOs select project-based cohorts, ensuring impact through focused implementation.
  • Indicator Selection: Each institution selects appropriate indicators from the OPUS Researcher Assessment Framework (RAF), such as open access publishing, FAIR data practices, or public engagement.
  • Intervention Categories: Implementation strategies include the development of new policies, provision of infrastructure and resources, repository management, awareness campaigns, and dedicated training activities.
  • Planning and Evaluation: Implementation includes defined milestones (at 9 and 18 months) and progress-tracking systems that support iterative learning and responsive adjustments.
  • Stakeholder Engagement: Researchers, institutional leaders, and support staff are actively involved to ensure a collaborative and systemic approach to OS implementation.

These tailored action plans represent a scalable model for institutional reform, making them highly transferable for adoption by other institutions seeking to embed Open Science principles in practice.

Type of Result

Institutional Action Plan / Policy Implementation Toolkit

Exploitation Potential
  • Provides a practical roadmap for OS implementation adaptable to institutional priorities.
  • Supports alignment with RAF-based researcher assessment reform.
  • Serves as a transferable model for national and EU-level Open Science initiatives.
  • Offers insights for policy makers, institutional leaders, and OS advocates.
Intellectual Property Rights
  • Copyright: NOVA UNIVERSITY and YERUN (WP4 lead)
  • License: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0
  • Available via Zenodo: DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14046982
Target Users/Stakeholders
  • Research Performing Organisations (RPOs)
  • Research Funding Organisations (RFOs)
  • Open Science policy makers and coordinators
  • University and research administrators
  • National OS platforms and Horizon Europe stakeholders
Links & Resources

Key Exploitable Result 4: Final Mutual Learning Exercise on the Pilots

Final Mutual Learning Exercise: Advancing Open Science Through Collaborative Research Assessment Reform

Result Description

The Mutual Learning Exercises represented a significant phase in the OPUS project’s efforts to modernise researcher assessment by embedding Open Science principles into institutional practices across research organisations in Europe. The collaborative sessions brought together five pilot organisations, three Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) and two Research Funding Organisations (RFOs), to test the Researcher Assessment Framework (RAF) and co-create strategies for its long-term sustainability and scalability. The lessons learnt and recommendations from this process can serve other institutions aiming to implement the RAF and its accompanying interventions.

Over the course of the project, the Mutual Learning Exercises became a platform for sharing and peer learning, a space for participatory reflection and collegial exchange, enabling pilot institutions to:

  • Reflect on, share insights, and exchange experiences and challenges from their pilot implementations,
  • Reflect on institutional change processes,
  • Provide recommendations that can be useful to other institutions and policymakers.

The final face-to-face session reinforced OPUS’s commitment to a values-driven, inclusive, and evidence-based approach to researcher evaluation. By facilitating structured peer exchange and institutional dialogue, these sessions help ensure that RAF interventions are not only adopted, but also meaningfully adapted to local contexts.
The Cyprus gathering reaffirmed a collective vision for a more open, equitable, and impactful European research ecosystem, grounded in shared learning and mutual support.

Type of Result

Mutual Learning Model / Stakeholder Engagement Mechanism / Policy Co-Creation Format

 Exploitation Potential
  • Provides a replicable model for mutual learning and reform recommendations on Open Science and researcher assessment across diverse research institutions.
  • Supports policymaking and institutional change in alignment with the CoARA principles.
  • Delivers concrete recommendations for implementing RAF interventions.
  • Enables stakeholders to collectively develop and refine researcher assessment models based on real-world pilot experiences.
  • Facilitates broader adoption of Open Science aligned assessment practices through experiential learning.
  • Strengthens community engagement and ownership in the transition toward Open Science.
 Intellectual Property Rights
  • Copyright: UEFISCDI and YERUN (WP4 lead)
  • License: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0
  • Available via Zenodo: DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14672770
 Target Users/Stakeholders
  • Research Performing Organisations (RPOs)
  • Research Funding Organisations (RFOs)
  • Policymakers and Open Science coordinators
  • CoARA signatories and research assessment reform advocates
  • Institutional change managers and academic leadership
Links & Resources:

Key Exploitable Result 5: Final Policy Brief on supporting the transition for Open Science

Result Description

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.

Type of Result

Policy Brief / Strategic Framework / Assessment Toolkit

Exploitation Potential
  • Acts as a policy-enabling document for RPOs, RFOs, national and European research administrations and agencies.
  • Supports alignment with CoARA principles, EU and UNESCO Open Science policy frameworks.
  • Offers practical, flexible, and scalable tools for OS policy instruments and responsible researcher evaluation systems.
  • Serves as a model for national or cross-institutional adoption of researcher assessment reform and OS strategies and interventions.
  • Provides policy advice to enable OS uptake, reduce precarity of researchers, and enhance gender equality and trust in science.
Intellectual Property Rights
  • Copyright: UNESCO
  • License: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0
  • Available via Zenodo: DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.14672922 
Target Users/Stakeholders
  • Policymakers in research and higher education
  • Research Performing and Funding Organisations
  • National Open Science Coordinators
  • Institutional assessment committees and HR offices
  • European research policy bodies and CoARA participants
Links & Resources

Key Exploitable Result 6: Open Science Career Assessment Matrix 2 (OSCAM2)

Result Description

The OSCAM2 consists of a comprehensive framework of indicators to recognise the variety of Open Science practices conducted by researchers in their assessment. The framework essentially takes the indicators from the RAF and lenses them for Open Science which typically means activities are made openly available or are focused on the topic of Open Science. The indicators, similar to the RAF, can be deployed qualitatively and/or quantitatively by RPOs and RFOs and are distinguished for processes, outputs, and outcomes. RPOs and RFOs are expected to select, refine, and implement Open Science indicators according to their strategic interests and needs.

Type of Result

Framework/Policy Tool/Indicators

Exploitation Potential
  • Designed for integration into institutional policies at RPOs and RFOs.
  • Adaptable to specific disciplinary, organisational, and national contexts.
  • Indicators to be selected, refined, prioritised, and implemented as needed.
Intellectual Property Rights
  • Copyright: Technopolis Group Belgium
  • License: Creative Commons CC BY 4.0
Target Users/Stakeholders
  • Research Performing Organisations (RPOs)
  • Research Funding Organisations (RFOs)
  • Policymakers and ministries of research
  • Members of the CoARA network
  • HR departments and evaluation committees
  • National Open Science Coordinators
Links and Resources
Workpackages and Deliverables

The research category consists of 6 subcategories for proposals, methods, data, software, publications, and materials with associated generic indicators/metrics for researcher assessment.

WP1 (State-of-the-Art): Reviewed existing literature and identified key experts, initiatives, and networks related to research assessment and Open Science (including creating a database of over 150 experts, identifying 36 relevant Horizon Europe projects, and mapping 34 relevant networks for the project).

Here is the list of the deliverables from WP1:

Deliverable Licence DOI
D1.1 – Initial State-of-the-Art on Open Science Initiatives CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.8409981
D1.2 – Initial State-of-the-Art on Open Science Literature CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.8410049
D1.3 – Updated State-of-the-Art on Open Science Initiatives CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14672398
D1.4 – Updated State-of the-Art on Open Science Literature CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14672437

WP2 (Interventions): Developed a set of interventions to support RPOs and RFOs with implementing the RAF and OSCAM2 which focus on the policies, resources, awareness raising, and training needed for implementation.

Here is the list of the deliverables from WP2:

Deliverable Licence DOI
D3.1 – Indicators and Metrics to Test in the Pilots CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.10497433
D3.2 – Baseline Audit of Metrics to Test in the Pilots  CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14047482
D3.3 – Intermediate Evaluation of Metrics Tested in the Pilots  CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14046797
D3.4 – Final Evaluation of Metrics Tested in the Pilots CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14672450
D3.5 – Indicators and Metrics for Open Science CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14672476

WP3 (Framework): Developed a Researcher Assessment Framework (RAF) to recognise the wide diversity of activities conducted by researchers, developed an Open Science Career Assessment Matrix (OSCAM2) to incentivise and reward Open Science practices by researchers, and supported the pilot organisations.

Here is the list of the deliverables from WP3:

Deliverable Licence DOI
D2.1 – Interventions to Test in the Pilots CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.10686426
D2.2 – Baseline Audit of Interventions to Test in the Pilots CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14047372
D2.3 – Intermediate Evaluation of Interventions Tested in the Pilots CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14044873
D2.4 – Final Evaluation of Interventions Tested in the Pilots CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14672615
D2.5 – Interventions for Open Science CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14672685

WP4 (Pilots): Three RPOs and two RFOs piloted the RAF at their organisations. This included reviewing existing researcher assessment practices, selecting relevant indicators from the RAF with a focus on Open Science, developing action plans to implement the selected indicators, creating cohorts of participating researchers, and monitoring the implementation of the pilots.

Here is the list of the deliverables from WP4:

Deliverable Licence DOI
D4.1 – Initial Action Plans to Implement the Pilots CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14047148
D4.2 – Initial Mutual Learning Exercise on the Pilots CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14046850
D4.3 – Final Action Plans to Implement the Pilots CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14046982
D4.4 – Final Mutual Learning Exercise on the Pilots CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14672770

WP5 (Policy): Published policy briefs to inform stakeholders about key exploitable results of the project and helped to align the project with Open Science initiatives such as the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science.

Here is the list of the deliverables from WP5:

Deliverable Licence DOI
D5.1 – Initial Policy Brief with Feedback for EC CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.10664123
D5.2 – Final Policy Brief for Open Science CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14672922
D5.3 – Open Science Career Assessment Matrix 2 (OSCAM2) CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14672951

WP6 (Coordination): Coordinated the consortium and managed the overall implementation of the project as well as liaising with the European Commission.

Here is the list of the deliverables from WP6:

Deliverable Licence DOI
D6.1 – Project Initiation Document CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14741548
D6.2 – Data Management Plan CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14741582

WP7 (Communication): Managed communication and dissemination activities to promote the project, progress of the project, and project key exploitable results.

Here is the list of the deliverables from WP7:

Deliverable Licence DOI
D7.1 – Dissemination and Communication Plan CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14741571
D7.2 – Exploitation Plan CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14741591
D7.3 – Final DCE Report CC-BY 4.0 10.5281/zenodo.14672969
Privacy Preferences

When you visit our website, it may store information through your browser from specific services, usually in the form of cookies. Our Privacy Policy can be read here.

Here you can change your Privacy preferences. It is worth noting that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our website and the services we are able to offer.

Click to enable/disable Google Analytics tracking code.
Click to enable/disable Google Fonts.
Click to enable/disable Google Maps.
Click to enable/disable video embeds.
Our website uses cookies, mainly from 3rd party services. Define your Privacy Preferences and/or agree to our use of cookies.