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Module 1: Awareness of European/National/Institutional Policies on RDM, Open Science

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The training curriculum is currently undergoing final revisions and quality checks. All materials will be released shortly. Until the official release, please refrain from using, distributing, or implementing any part of these resources.

Learning Objectives

  • Learning Objective 1 (LO1): Apply the national Open Science/Research Data Management policy in the institution.

Total Module Duration

1 hour (without optional activity)

Learning Objective 1

LO1: Apply the national Open Science/Research Data Management policy in the institution.

Learning Activities

  • Introductory lecture with slides (30 mins): Overview of current national OS and RDM policies, the relevant actors in national OS landscape, how national policies connect to institutional policies and activities with examples.
  • Discussion activity (30 mins): A researcher is asking help with his/her Data Management Plan (DMP). They want to fill in the DMP on how they will publish their data (and software) after the research. Help the researcher find guidance on data (and software) publication in the context of your institutional or local open science policy document.
  • (Optional) Activity (30 mins): This can be an additional or alternative activity: Have learners review the data policy of their institution and highlight its key elements.

Materials to Prepare

  • Slide presentation.
  • Question for activity relevant to the national OS context.

Instructor Notes

Lecture/presentation:

  • Provide the learners with an overview of the landscape of open science and RDM policies in the local country context. Outline the key stakeholders and the practices relevant to their roles. The resources provided help to get an overview of existing policies and their importance for building a common understanding of objectives and ways to work towards them (Resources 1–6).
  • The content should focus on giving learners an overview of national/institutional policies, and the most relevant things to consider when applying national OS and RDM policies in their own work. The exercise helps the learners to think about the implementation of the national policies into the institutional policies. The instructor can also connect how national policies rely on recommendations from the European Commission and other bodies (such as UNESCO).

Discussion activity:

  • The instructor can provide the learners with the example outlined in the activity and request a discussion take place in small groups. The discussion can be extended by asking learners to reflect on the benefits to researchers from thinking about DMP-relevant issues at an early stage of their research.
  • The instructor can use the case of Finland as an example (Resource 5). However it would be better if the local country context and the relevant policies are discussed. The instructor can prepare for the discussion by reviewing and using Resources 1 and 2 to help outline the key aspects to consider when researchers want to publish data and/or software. Activities should be tailored to whatever is most relevant in the country context.

Alternative activity:

  • Resources 1–4 can be used as input to prepare for this activity.

Resources

Input for the lecture/presentation:

  1. Policies & guidelines. TU Delft. https://www.tudelft.nl/en/open-science/about-the-programme/policies-guidelines.
  2. Policy Tools and Guidance, https://www.dcc.ac.uk/guidance/policy/policy-tools-and-guidance.
  3. UNESCO. Open Science Outlook 1: Status and Trends around the World. UNESCO, 2023. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.54677/GIIC6829.
  4. UNESCO Open Science Toolkit. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000383710/PDF/383710eng.pdf.multi. Accessed 27 Mar. 2025.
    This guide sets out the key factors why open science policies are important and what has been considered when developing policies for open science.
  5. "Policies for Open Science and Research in Finland." Open Science, https://avointiede.fi/en/policies-materials/policies-open-science-and-research-finland.
    This resource is included as an example of the overview of OS policy and policy actors in Finland, which could be drawn upon to use Finland as a case study.
  6. Open Science - European Commission. https://rea.ec.europa.eu/open-science_en.

Additional reading for inspiration for the instructor:

  1. Overview of Open Science Policies in Nordic and Baltic countries: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6503709.
  2. Data Act | Shaping Europe's Digital Future. https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/policies/data-act.
    The Data Act is a comprehensive initiative to address the challenges and unleash the opportunities presented by data in the European Union: Data Act. Shaping Europe's Digital Future.