1st Meeting of the Special Interest Group on Open Science Policies and Strategies
The Special Interest Group (SIG) on Open Science Policies and Strategies convened for its first meeting last week in an online session that brought together top decision-makers from across the Portuguese research and academic landscape. This group was established in the scope of the Work Package 2 of the Re.Data project, focused on developing policies for research data management (RDM). The initiative is led by the Interdisciplinary Research Institute at the University of Coimbra.
Themed "Challenges and Opportunities", this first meeting marked the beginning of a series of four sessions that aim to promote discussion and raise awareness about the challenges of Open Science, with a special focus on Research Data Management. The reflections and insights from these decision-makers will be considered in the project's deliverables, namely the reference framework for designing and implementing institutional policies, a training program tailored to different profiles, the establishment of the Data Stewards Network, and the harmonization of institutional and collaborative best practices.
The session opened with a presentation introducing the Re.Data project and the goals of its policy work package, which was followed by the keynote speaker Pastora Martinez Samper, from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and the European University Association (EUA), that shared insights into EUA's Open Science strategies, setting the stage for a broader exchange of experiences and perspectives. In the end, a logical model that will support the development of the reference framework was introduced, and several institutions shared their experiences.
The group currently includes 39 entities, comprising 28 Higher Education Institutions, 10 Competence Centers, as well as the Champalimaud Foundation and the Gulbenkian Institute for Molecular Medicine (GIMM) — all represented represented by high-level decision-makers interested in the challenges of Open Science and Research Data Management.
The next meeting is scheduled to take place in June 2025, in Coimbra, and will offer an in-person opportunity to further the discussions initiated online. Until then, the group will continue to collaborate virtually, focusing on the evolving theme of “Challenges and Opportunities in Open Science.”
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