The year 2023 will be the last of a four-year Open Science Programme. It raises the question of what we learned from the existing programme, whether we need a continuation to achieve the mission, and if we want to use the same setup or approach.

The current OSP assumes that three cross-cutting themes provide the glue that binds the seven projects together.
Additionally, the projects have, in some cases, more substantial dependencies with activities and projects outside than inside the OSP. That observation may call for a radically different setup and even question whether a follow-up OSP is the right approach. However, several national developments make such a follow-up perfect sense:
• establishing a council of Chiefs-of-Open-Science;
• transitioning from NPOS to NWO ‘regie-orgaan’;
• an increased prospect of government funding for open science and open education.
It is in the strategic interest of TU Delft to have a balanced, effective, and well-communicated set of activities that advance open science at its faculties. To emphasise that this is not a new effort, we suggest calling this programme Open Science NEXT.

We’ll still create actively links between the various projects in the OSP. However, we can also find such links at each of our faculties. In their work, they need to apply the principles of open science in all dimensions of education and research. In the last year of the Open Science Programme, we will investigate more than before how to reach out to local research and teaching programmes.

In the last year we learned that some of our most dedicated open science colleagues are slowed down in their best practices by the investments in infrastructure that TU Delft made in the past. Also open science efforts are not always recognised in TU Delft evaluation processes for hiring, tenure and promotion.

The main goals for this year and beyond are:
• To emphasise explicitly that ‘open’ becomes the new ‘normal’;
• To acknowledge that there are internal obstacles that we need to resolve;
• To embrace a policy that all future investments and purchases of software and systems facilitate seamless open teaching and research practices. ... Read more

The Open Science Programme 2020-2024, Research and Education in the Open Era, tackles all areas of scholarly engagement where restrictions limit the flow of academic knowledge. It proposes new approaches to the process of research, education and innovation, with a strong focus on transparency, integrity and efficiency. The programme started in January 2020 with five interrelated projects: Open Education, Open Access, Open Publishing Platform, FAIR Data, and FAIR Software. The projects are aimed at creating and disseminating various types of resources for the benefit of TU Delft researchers, teachers and students, as well as the general public. They will range from educational materials and software to a publishing platform. The outputs of the programme will be as open and ‘FAIR’ as possible: findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable. In addition, each project will address the following three preconditions for successful implementation: ensuring appropriate rewards and recognition, facilitating fruitful collaboration with third parties, and gathering relevant skills. These are therefore incorporated in the programme as cross-cutting themes for all projects. The first year of the Open Science Programme, 2020, was about connection: The connection between the projects and the intersecting themes, the connection between the various TU Delft services that are involved in the programme, and also the connection with the faculties, the communities, and the individual researchers and lecturers. Community engagement manager, Emmy Tsang, started on 15 September 2020. The Open Science Community Delft was launched in September 2020. In addition to the five projects and the three intersecting themes, there were two extra assignments for 2020: Explore the topics of Citizen Science and Open Hardware. After this year, the advice is to incorporate both Citizen Science and Open Hardware as projects into the programme. In addition to the results from 2020, the report also discusses the plans and goals for 2021. ... Read more

Building upon the connections established in the first year, the second year of the TUD Open Science Programme saw the team and partners collaboratively reaching some major milestones: the TUD Research Software Policy, TUD Policy on Open Educational Resources and the Recognition & Rewards Perspective were approved by the CvB; the first rounds of Research Data Management 101 Training and the Digital Competence Center’s calls for project support were successfully delivered to great appreciation from participants; the new TUD Open Science website was launched in December. In addition, connections with faculties were further consolidated: faculty management teams expressed support and enthusiasm to further collaborate, and the Open Science Community Delft continues to grow as more researchers are inspired to participate in and, in some cases, lead conversations in open research and education. With the Programme and the achievements of the Programme team and community, TUD is internationally recognized as a leader in Open Science. The growth target open access for 2022 is 3% (to 84%). Our academics received open science awards and funding, and were invited to participate in national open science conversations (e.g. FAIR Data Tafel). Our team members are regularly invited to participate in national and international open science efforts, and asked to share our experience and learnings with colleagues in other institutions, at events and in various media. Within TU Delft, the Programme has also built and consolidated strategic partnerships with other offices, such as the Integrity Office, the Innovation and Impact Center to provide advice for Horizon Europe applicants, the Diversity Office to promote diversity and inclusion in technology development, and the Climate Action Hub and the Global Initiative to raise awareness on the importance of open science in climate research and in driving global impact. Portfolio Holder Rob Mudde advised the establishment of an advisory board dedicated to the open education project; representatives from all phases in TUD education (bachelor, master, PhD, extension school) were invited to become a member. Looking forward to 2022, we aim to further embed programme output into the regular programming around the university, to ultimately ensure that open science becomes the norm. ... Read more

In this paper, we explain our strategy for developing research data management policies at TU Delft. Policies can be important drivers for research institutions in the implementation of good data management practices. As Rans and Jones note (Rans and Jones 2013), " Policies provide clarity of purpose and may help in the framing of roles, responsibilities and requisite actions. They also legitimise making the case for investment”. However, policy development often tends to place the researchers in a passive position, while they are the ones managing research data on a daily basis. Therefore, at TU Delft, we have taken an alternative approach: a policy needs to go hand in hand with practice. The policy development was initiated by the Research Data Services at TU Delft Library, but as the process continued, other stakeholders, such as legal and IT departments, got involved. Finally, the faculty-based Data Stewards have played a key role in leading the consultations with the research community that led to the development of the faculty-specific policies. This allows for disciplinary differences to be reflected in the policies and to create a closer connection between policies and day-to-day research practice. Our primary intention was to keep researchers and research practices at the centre of our strategy for data management. We did not want to introduce and mandate requirements before adequate infrastructure and professional support were available to our research community and before our researchers were themselves willing to discuss formalisation of data management practices. This paper describes the key steps taken and the most important decisions made during the development of RDM policies at TU Delft. ... Read more

This National Plan Open Science sets out what the Dutch parties involved in creating this Plan are already doing and what they plan to do to grasp the opportunities and at the same time make science even more accessible to others. A major boost is required if these initiatives are to be coordinated and the great ambition realised. That is why this Plan lists the ambitions and provides details of the parties intending to take action, as well as the timeframes within which they believe they can realise their objectives. The key ambitions are: (1) Full open access to publications in 2020: Continue the Dutch approach for all Dutch research organisations and research areas whilst recognising their differences and similarities; (2) To make research data optimally suited for reuse: To set clear and agreed technical and policy-related preconditions to facilitate reuse of research data, including provision of the necessary expertise and support; (3) Recognition and rewards: To examine together how open science can be an element of the evaluation and reward system for researchers, research groups and research proposals; and (4) To promote and support: To establish a ‘clearing house’ for all information regarding all available research support. With the ambitions set out in this plan the Netherlands is responding to the Amsterdam Call for Action on Open Science published in 2016, the conclusions of the Competitiveness Council in May 2016, and to the in the letter to Parliament concerning open science confirmed question by the State Secretary for Education, Culture and Science (January 2017). Open access to publications and optimal reuse of research data are becoming the standard for all knowledge institutes and research areas. The motto here is as open as possible, as closed as necessary. - These reports are available under a CC-BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). ... Read more