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With thanks and best regards,
The Open Science Team of swissuniversities
FROM THE OPEN SCIENCE PROGRAMME
Last chance to apply: Call for Open Research Data (ORD) Reviewers
The programme Open Science I, Phase B – ORD implements the action lines of the ORD Action Plan, which are under the responsibility of swissuniversities. The Delegation Open Science leads the implementation of the programme on behalf of the swissuniversities Board. Open calls for proposals can be viewed here.
The Delegation Open Science of swissuniversities is recruiting ORD experts to expand the existing Open Science Reviewers’ Pool, whose task is to assess the quality, impact and relevance of proposals using an anonymised open peer review process. To expand the Open Science Reviewers’ Pool, we are looking for two different profiles:
- Profile I: Senior Experts in the Field of ORD
- Profile II: Junior Researchers with Expertise in ORD
Please send your application to open-science@swissuniversities.ch by 7 October 2022.
For more information on the expertise and skills requirements, the expectations as well as the recruitment process, please see the following document.
Swiss Open Research Data Grants:
Call for proposals for Track C “Contribute projects” and Track A “Explore projects”
swissuniversities and the ETH Domain jointly organise the Swiss Open Research Data Grants programme. The collaboration enables coherent and broad bottom-up support for ORD practices across disciplines and higher education institutions in Switzerland, thereby facilitating the creation of synergies and complementarities.
Track C: “Contribute projects” enable researchers to contribute to existing open communities built on ORD principles, validate their integration into existing infrastructures (also on an international scale), and focus on their potential to improve scientific impact and technical quality.
The first call for proposals in Track C has now been issued. The application guidelines are available here. Proposals may be submitted until 1 December 2022* (17:00 CEST). The second call for proposals for Track C will be issued from 2 June 2023 to 2 August 2023.
*Corrigendum: Please note that in our first version of this newsletter, the deadline for Track C was incorrectly stated as 31 December 2022.
The second call for proposals in Track A “Explore projects” will open on 31 October 2022. The Track A encompasses early-phase exploration as well as the testing and prototyping of a potential ORD practice. It allows for engagement with a community without necessarily creating a final product. The objective is to help researchers explore if and how ORD practices can be developed. Proposals for the second call in Track A may be submitted until 31 December 2022.
Further information can be found on the Swiss Open Research Data Grants website.
Action line B5.2: Action plans on data stewardship: Call closed
Many thanks to the higher education institutions who have submitted a proposal for the action line B5.2 of the ORD Action Plan. The call is now closed and the submitted applications are being reviewed. The final decision will be made by the Open Science Delegation in December 2022.
This action line aims to promote data stewardship and ORD specialists at all higher education and research institutions. Data stewardship is the focus of the first implementation step until 2024.All eligible higher education institutions were invited to describe their ideas and intentions for building up data stewardship at their institution in the form of a brief action plan.
Call for Projects 2022 – OA Action lines - Results
Following the recommendations of the Open Science Reviewers, the Open Science Delegation selected several projects for the Open Access Call. All project evaluations and results are available on the website from swissuniversities here.
OA Call for Tenders –Regulatory Framework - Results
The Open Science Program of swissuniversities received one offer following the Call for Tenders launched in March 2022 for a comprehensive legal analysis focusing on an alternative approach for a secondary publication right. The results of this offer is available on our website under this link.
REFORMING RESEARCH ASSESSMENT
Signing the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment
swissuniversities and the Swiss National Science Foundation signed the ‘Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment’. We support the endeavour that evaluation criteria are further developed, focus on quality, impact, and recognise the diversity of research activities, practices and outcomes.
Read more: https://www.swissuniversities.ch/en/news/signing-the-agreement-on-reforming-research-assessment
In preparation to signing the agreement, swissuniversities hosted a ‘Q&A’ session with EUA experts Drs. Vinciane Gaillard and Rita Morais. The slides of the presentation are available online and institutions and organizations ready to sign this agreement, can do so officially here.
OPEN SCIENCE POLICY
CERN publishes a comprehensive open science policy
With a recently published open science policy, CERN reinforces its efforts to make research open and accessible for everyone. The new policy brings together existing open science initiatives and aims to make all CERN research fully accessible, inclusive, democratic and transparent, for both other researchers and wider society.
This OS policy encompasses the existing policies for open access, open data and open source software and hardware, which make all research papers, experimental data and research software and hardware publicly available. It brings together additional existing elements of open science such as research integrity, open infrastructure and research assessment, which make research reliable and reproducible – and training, outreach and citizen science to name a few, which aim to educate and create dialogue with the next generation of researchers and the public.
Published alongside the policy document is a dedicated website explaining all the open science initiatives at CERN. For more info on this topic, feel free to click here.
OPEN ACCESS WEEK
Event series on sustainable Open Access models organised by the libraries of HfH, PHZH, ZHAW and ZHdK
The libraries of the University of Teacher Education in Special Needs (HfH), the Zurich University of Teacher Education (PHZH), Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) are organising a hybrid event series during the international Open Access Week. The events will take place from 24th to 28th October 2022 and include virtual lunch lectures, a panel discussion and a network meeting in Zurich (in German).
The event series is free and open to all, but we are particularly looking forward to welcoming researchers who are interested in sustainable models for Open Access publishing, such as Green and Diamond Open Access. For further information and to register, please visit the event page.
WEBINAR
Diamond OA Publishing in Switzerland: Where we stand now and the road ahead
Online webinar |Thursday, February 23, 2023, 4–5 pm
► Registration for this event is free and can be submitted here.
Since the publication of the «OA Diamond Journal Study» in 2021 and the «Action Plan for Diamond Open Access» in March 2022, the movement towards community-led publishing that is free for both readers and authors has gained strong momentum, providing tail wind for discussions of alternative forms for open access publishing that highlight the limits and inherent inequalities of current models.
The «Platinum Open Access Funding» project (PLATO) is an initiative of six Swiss universities (University of Zurich, University of Bern, University of Geneva, University of Neuchâtel, ETH Zurich, Zurich University of Arts), co-financed by swissuniversities, to strengthen Diamond open access publishing in Switzerland.
From April to September 2022, PLATO in collaboration with the Bern University of Applied Sciences has undertaken a study on the current landscape of Diamond OA journals, its scope, infrastructures, challenges and opportunities. Based on the findings of this study, the PLATO project sets out to devise sustainable funding models for existing and upcoming journals as well as strategies for further developing Diamond OA publishing in Switzerland.
The webinar will give an overview of the key findings of the PLATO study and will give space for discussing the study as well as the opportunities and challenges ahead towards more equitable, affordable, and diverse scholarly publishing.
The PLATO Study Report will be published at the end of 2022 and will be sent out to all participants before the meeting.
Please contact Dr. Daniela Hahn for more information regarding the webinar.
Since February 2022, Daniela Hahn is the project manager of the «Platinum Open Access Funding» project (PLATO) at the University of Zurich. Before joining the UZH Open Science Office, she held positions as a postdoc researcher in Germany, Switzerland, and the USA and completed the CAS «Leadership and Governance an Hochschulen» at UZH.
OPEN POSITION
Scientific Collaborator (ORD Policy) - 100% |EPFL
You can find more information about the available position and this job offer here.
The National ORD Strategy Council (StraCo) is a high-level science policy body of Switzerland, created to oversee the implementation of the Swiss Open Research Data Strategy. It is composed of top-level decisions makers from key institutions: the presidents of ETHZ and EPFL, the director of SNSF, the president of Swiss Academies, and 5 rectors or other senior executives from cantonal universities.
As an independent governance body formed jointly by the four principal national research actors (ETH Board, SNSF, Swissuniversities, and Swiss Academies), the StraCo is an innovation in Swiss education, research and innovation (ERI) governance. As such, it ambitions to demonstrate novel capabilities for coordination, collaboration, and common policymaking in the space of Open Research Data / open science.
The StraCo is advised and supported by a Coordination Group (CoG) formed of expert staff from the institutions represented in the StraCo. It does not have an independent secretariat.
EVENT
Science Europe Open Science Conference 2022 – October 18-19, 2022
Brussels & hybrid
Science Europe is organising its first conference on Open Science on 18 and 19 October 2022. The goal is to bring together institutional leaders, researchers at all stages of their careers, and experts from the field to discuss two main questions:
- Is Open Science ready to become the norm in research?
- How do we ensure an equitable transition to Open Science?
For more information regarding this conference, please feel free to click here.