Key Takeaways from OpenAIRE Session with the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science

Bringing together Bulgarian policymakers and Open Science experts from the OpenAIRE community, the session addressed key pillars of Open Science – policy, training and infrastructure – and offered valuable insights into implementation processes in Belgium, Portugal and Ireland.

The webinar kicked off with an introduction to the Open Science ecosystem in Bulgaria by Milena Damyanova, Director of the Science Directorate at the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science. She emphasized that the impact of Open Science policies is not confined to the scientific community, but extends to various spheres of social life. She highlighted the role of Open Access (OA) in facilitating connections between researchers, innovators, businesses, and other stakeholders and went on to present Bulgaria's National Open Science Plan: The plan provides guidance for stakeholders, sets strategic goals, and outlines necessary steps for successful implementation. Since its inception, the plan has led to increased funding effectiveness, transparency, and quality of research results. On the level of infrastructure, the Bulgarian Portal for Open Science (BPOS) serves as a single entry point for all institutional data repositories in the country, offering access to publications, datasets, and training events. The Ministry has also established a task force to create a national Open Science program.

After this glimpse into the current state of the Bulgarian Open Science ecosystem, Inge Van Nieuwerburgh, Open Science Expert at the University of Ghent and OpenAIRE National Open Access Desk for Belgium started the round of use cases from European countries on fostering an Open Science environment at the national level. She focused on the policy aspect and presented the Flemish Open Science Roadmap 2019-2024. The roadmap emphasizes research data management (RDM) practices and provides funding for data stewards and infrastructure investment. The roadmap has significantly increased the number of Open Access publications and FAIR data in Flanders.

Paula Moura, Information Professional and Open Science project manager at the University of Minho, proceeded to present national training and community-building approaches in Portugal. As a pioneer in adopting and implementing Open Science policies in Portugal, the establishment of the institutional RepositoriUM in 2003 and the Portuguese network of scientific OA repositories (RCAAP) in 2008 laid the foundation for UMinho's participation in international Open Science projects. UMinho has been the Portuguese OpenAIRE NOAD institution since 2009 and provides an integrated support and training program with webinars, seminars, summer and winter schools, and a helpdesk. Experts in data curation and open data infrastructure management work together in the Portuguese RDM Forum to improve training for Open Science professionals and to set up national training strategies. In addition, a national MOOC platform is in place.

Covering the third key pillar of Open Science, services and infrastructure, Leonidas Pispiringas, Scholarly Communication Technical Expert at OpenAIRE, introduced the audience to Ireland's National Open Access Monitor – an innovative platform designed to transition the country's scholarly output to 100% Open Access. Managed by OpenAIRE, the monitor provides comprehensive insights into both Open Science indicators and research outputs through five dashboards targeting different stakeholders. The project, currently in its pilot phase, aims to improve data quality and metrics through user feedback and to facilitate the onboarding process of Irish repositories and aggregators to the OpenAIRE Graph, the data backbone of the Monitor.

The session concluded with a discussion on the concrete steps and priorities for implementing Open Science principles in a country. Key points included the importance of careful policy preparation that builds a strong case for Open Science, and setting clear priorities such as RDM. It is crucial to support researchers in taking ownership of Open Science and understanding its benefits. Establishing a strong support framework, such as an Open Science office and helpdesk, and collaborating with existing Open Science advocates further promote these principles. Additionally, leveraging use cases from other countries help demonstrate the practical benefits and feasibility of Open Science initiatives.

You can watch the recording of the webinar on the YouTube channel of the Science Directorate at the Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science.

Watch the streaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3blqQVeGTM