Research support staff

Bring your data and learn how to effectively anonymize them with Amnesia!

Wednesday, 30 June 2021

‘Athena’ Research Center, as part of the activities of the OpenAIRE NOAD in Greece, launches yet another round of informative and educational online seminars, in support of research activities relevant to the coronavirus disease. The seminars will inform about new developments, promote know-how and familiarize the scientific community with the use of certain services. This seminar will run in collaboration with the OpenAIRE NOAD in Cyprus.

“Amnesia: anonymization of data with guarantees”

Date: Wednesday 30 June 2021

Time: 11.00 a.m - 12.30 p.m (EEST)

Language: Greek

Public: Researchers, Academic Staff, Research Infrastructures and Research Services, Librarians

The seminar concentrates on the processing of sensitive and personal data to show anonymization techniques and guarantees that are offered via the Amnesia tool.  Amnesia is an open source software that applies k- and km- anonymity techniques in order to achieve guaranteed irreversible anonymization of personal data. The techniques of anonymization that it offers convert the personal data into statistics with the least possible loss of information, allowing their processing without the restrictions of the General Regulation on Personal Data Protection.

During the seminar, participants will learn about the legal framework governing sensitive and personal data, as well as about alternatives that they can follow to achieve maximum compliance with Open Science conditions. There will be a presentation of the tool and then participants will have the opportunity to practice using Amnesia with their own data! 

For any questions you may have, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

• Greece
• Cyprus

Open Research Europe: The EC’s platform for open access publications

Thursday, 08 April 2021

The National Open Access Desks for Greece and Cyprus continue their joint efforts to inform and update the research and academic communities in their countries about important Open Science aspects. This time they partner with the Scholarly Communication Unit of HEAL-Link. 

The webinar presents the Open Research Europe platform which has been developed by the European Commission (EC) to support open access publishing for scientific publications of framework programme’s projects. The webinar aims to communicate the model and the ways in which the platform can be used by researchers.

When: Thursday 8 April 2021

Time: 11.00 a.m - 12.00 p.m 

Language: Greek

Target audience: Researchers, Academic Staff, Librarians

We are pleased to announce that the webinar will be delivered by Victoria Tsoukala, Policy Officer-Seconded National Expert- Open Access-Science Cloud - European Commission, DG RESEARCH. 

Victoria’s presentation is about the new platform for open access peer-reviewed publications that is promoted by the EC as a service for project coordinators of ‘Horizon 2020’ and ‘Europe Horizon’ programmes. In addition, the new Open Science policy framework of ‘Europe Horizon’ that the platform supports compliance with, will be analysed.

For any questions you may have, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

• Greece: openaire [at] athenarc [dot] gr
• Cyprus: openaire-cy [at] ucy [dot] ac [dot] cy

Open Science Communities

Friday, 12 March 2021

On March 12 at 14:00 CET, Loek Brinkman, Assistant Professor at the University Medical Center Utrecht, will talk about Open Science Communities in the Netherlands. The first one, the Open Science Community Utrecht, was founded in 2018, and has now over 300 members, from all faculties and all career stages. The Open Science Community has three aims: 

1. Reach and engage researchers to learn about open science;
2. Inspire and enable to adopt open science practices; and
3. Shape institutional policies to facilitate and promote open science.

There are now ten Open Science Communities in the Netherlands, one in Ireland and one in Sweden. And an Open Science Community Starter Kit is available to help institutions to set up a local Open Science Community.

Please read the Starter Kit before joining this webinar and Loek will answer any questions you might have after his presentation.

OpenAIRE and EOSC: interactions and contribution to Open Science

Thursday, 18 February 2021

For the third consecutive year, the National Open Access Desks for Greece and Cyprus continue their joint efforts to inform and update the research and academic communities in their countries about important Open Science aspects.

This webinar presented the pan-European electronic infrastructure for Open Science - OpenAIRE and the European Open Science Cloud - EOSC. The webinar was supported also by the NI4OS-Europe project.

Lately, there is a rapid change in the field of Research and Innovation (R&I) in Europe. The adoption of the Open Science model by the European Commission has channelled open standards into national research settings. Complementary to new policies that are created, EOSC is being developed aiming to become the European research web which incorporates good practices and interconnects with national R&I ecosystems by design. Research infrastructures are called to support data-driven research and adapt to the new reality that adds value to their services.

The presentation informed about OpenAIRE, its continuous activity in the European Research Area for more than 10 years now and its evolution into a legal entity based in Greece. It also helped to provide a better understanding of EOSC and its operation, and communicated how OpenAIRE and NI4OS-Europe assist its implementation. In addition, it highlighted the changes brought by EOSC in various R&I areas and explained how everyday activities of researchers will be performed as well as what measures are underway to fully support the research process in all its dimensions.

OpenAIRE virtual coffee break

Tuesday, 16 February 2021

Involved in open science training and looking for ways to optimize assessment of online courses? Check out the virtual coffee break meeting notes.  

Galaxy: an open infrastructure for biological data analysis

Thursday, 03 December 2020

Athena Research Center (ARC), in the context of the new series of informative and educational workshops on COVID-19 research organised as part of the OpenAIRE National Open Access Desk and ELIXIR-Greece activities, invites you to an educational webinar on Galaxy - an infrastructure for biological data analysis. 

“Galaxy: an open infrastructure for biological data analysis”

When: Thursday 3 December 2020

Time: 12.30 - 14.30 p.m EET

Language of presentations: Greek

Target audience: Researchers, Health Professionals, Academic Staff, Librarians, Students

The webinar is held in collaboration with the Biomedical Sciences Research Center “Alexander Fleming” and the Institute of Applied Biosciences of the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas. The purpose of the webinar is twofold: on the one hand to inform about best practices and tools developed for the scientific field of Biomedicine and Open Science, on the other hand to focus on implementation of best practices on data analysis through the Galaxy service while familiarising researchers with its functionalities and use. During the webinar, scientists and researchers will be able to understand the service’s basic functions as well as how they can use it in their research, focusing on COVID-19 activities. Furthermore, interactions with speakers are encouraged in the discussion session through posing questions and communicating use case scenarios that will strengthen compliance with global practices and will enhance the service’s utilization / exploitation by the Greek research community.

Programme:

If you would like to attend the webinar “Galaxy: an open infrastructure for biological data analysis”, please subscribe here. 

The link to connect to the online platform will be sent to registered participants one day before the webinar.

The webinar will be recorded and all related material (slides, recordings, Q&As) will be shared with everyone afterwards.

For any questions you may have, please don’t hesitate to contact us!

• OpenAIRE in Greece:  
• ELIXIR-GR : link to contact

OpenAIRE virtual coffee break

Wednesday, 02 December 2020

The Open Science Skills Curriculum: what does it look like at the institutional level? This is a very practical question and we seek to find concrete answers that can be shared across countries and institutions. In particular, we focused on sharing information on:

• The topics covered by Open Science skills courses at the different stages of the researcher career (R1-R4)
• The learning objectives for these courses
• The means of delivery of these courses (online only, blended, face-to-face only, etc).
• The assessment of these courses (and any certification or accreditation).

A multitude of Open Science training courses are being delivered by institutions across Europe (and beyond) to researchers at different stages of their careers. Multiple agencies and groups described their much valuable work in reports and recommendations. However, basic information on curriculum specifics at the institutional level does not appear to be generally available.

It would be useful for those who are designing and updating these courses to be able to benchmark their offerings from the curriculum viewpoint, gaining an insight into the topics and levels of detail that are considered appropriate for doctoral students/early career researchers compared with more established researchers (for example), etc.

Session notes. 

COVID-19: best practices, tools and contact points in Greece

Thursday, 05 November 2020
Friday, 06 November 2020

“COVID-19: best practices, tools and contact points in Greece”

Athena Research Center (ARC), in the context of activities undertaken between OpenAIRE National Open Access Desk, RDA National Node and ELIXIR-GR, organises a new series of informative and educational webinars around COVID-19 research. The digital events are taking place in collaboration with the following scientific institutions: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, National Center for Research & Technology Hellas, Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Biomedical Sciences Research Center “Alexander Fleming”, Biomedical Research Foundation of the Academy of Athens, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Hellenic Academic Libraries Link, and the research infrastructure Inspired-RIs.

Τhe new series of digital events follows the first webinar held in April that aimed at collecting and promoting all efforts and knowledge around managing the virus crisis to the Greek scientific and academic community. This time, the purpose focuses, also, on knowledge exchange based on Open Science practices and on training in research data management and software development. Indicative subject areas to be covered are:

• information about the current status in Greece, such as the Flagship Action or national accomplishments in clinical studies etc. 
• providing guidance to researchers for Open Science best practices’ implementation through the adoption of Horizon 2020 Guidelines for open access to publications, data and other research outputs
• use of services and tools for research data processing and analysis, open source development and management, such as Argos, OpenRefine, Galaxy etc. 

The first two informative events will be carried out on Thursday 5 November and Friday 6 November at 12.00 - 14.00 p.m EET. During these webinars, the above mentioned institutions and research infrastructures will present the latest developments regarding their activities. 

For any questions you may have, please don’t hesitate to contact us at . 

Programme 

GDPR and training

Wednesday, 28 October 2020

The OpenAIRE Community of Practice for Training coordinators hosted this 1.5 hour-long webinar and collaborative writing sprint on organizing GDPR compliant online events.

Prodromos Tsiavos (Legal Adviser of "Athena" Research & Innovation Center and OpenAIRE) provided good practice advice and Walter Scholger (Zentrum für Informationsmodellierung, Austrian Centre for Digital Humanities, Universität Graz) talked about the Consent Form Wizard https://consent.dariah.eu/  followed by  discussions on how to make sure that GDPR requirements are properly addressed and personal data is protected. It covered best practices for online event organisation, including pre- and post-event (registration, carrying out, evaluation, etc.). It also addressed the following aspects: how to inform correctly about a session recording and how to make the recordings available (e.g. with public chat messages, etc.), good practices on making collaborative documents (developed at online sessions) publicly available, issues to consider during large online events, how to optimize the online events workflows, whether national differences in Europe play a big role, etc. Plain language templates and checklists were discussed in breakout group writing sprints and will be shared with a wider training community. 

The following good practice recommendations are being developed during the writing sprints: 

1. Before the event: Template/s: plain language wording for online registration forms (disclaimers, permissions, notice that consent could be withdrawn any time) and good practices for online events registration - e.g. a host organization manages registration on its website and has full control of data and a way to safely manage it, event access under password (not a direct link), etc.  Moderator: Rene van Horik (DANS, EOSChub) 
2. During the event: Wording suggestions for recording announcements, disclaimers and permissions (e.g. what will be captured - video, webcam footage, audio, text chat messages and displayed username; inform participants on how to anonymize themselves - change names, blur video, etc; is the participant’s consent needed - in writing - accept and continue at registration or verbal expression is sufficient, etc.). Any other tips for running online events. Moderator: Ellen Leenarts (DANS, OpenAIRE) 
3. After the event: Template/plain language wording to deal with personal data in evaluation/feedback forms. GDPR friendly tools and checklists for making online session materials publicly available - recording, collaborative documents, etc. Checklists/workflows for keeping online events documentation, registration and recording: e.g. beware of not keeping backups with actual names and email addresses; anonymize before backing up and storing, secure storage (encrypted?), etc. Retention period: for how long the data could/should be kept and when it will be deleted, etc. Moderator: Iryna Kuchma (EIFL, OpenAIRE)

Equity and inclusion: open science policies

Friday, 23 October 2020

Webinar jointly organised by COAR, EIFL and OpenAIRE on Friday, October

23rd at 12:00 - 13:30 CEST. 

This panel addressed equity and inclusion in recent open science policy developments in Asia and Europe. 

Open Access Week 2020 programme: 

https://www.openaire.eu/openaire-open-access-week-2020

Research data: accessible infrastructures and innovative tools in Greece

Friday, 23 October 2020

Athena Research Center (ARC) together with Hellenic Academic Libraries Link (HEAL-link) participate in Open Access Week 2020 in the context of activities for OpenAIRE in Greece. The topic of presentations and discussions to take place is research data management. The event is open to all researchers and to members of research organisations in Greece, both in the public and private sector. 

Title: “Research data: accessible infrastructures and innovative tools in Greece”

When: Friday, 23 October 2020

Time: 13:00 p.m - 14:30 p.m

Language: Greek 

The theme of the International Open Access Week 2020, 19-25 October, is “Open with Purpose: Taking Action to Build Structural Equity and Inclusion.” The goal is to raise awareness regarding diversity, equity and inclusion of all research communities and forms of knowledge. By reshaping research and creating systems for sharing knowledge we come across with an opportunity for a more equitable, diverse and open framework for all research communities. In particular, Greece is facing important structural changes that will allow open redistribution of research data and will facilitate implementation of Open Science practices. 

ARC and HEAL-link concentrated this year’s presentations on issues around research data management and personal data. The presentations will focus on national research data repositories, highlighting their contribution to paneuropean cloud infrastructures and their role in an Open Science environment. Finallt, to limit discouragement in following open practices when dealing with sensitive and personal data, the Amnesia tool for  data anonymization will be explained. 

Open Access Week: Towards a scholarly commons

Thursday, 22 October 2020

Equity and inclusion: community-owned infrastructures for open science

Wednesday, 21 October 2020

Webinar jointly organised by COAR, EIFL and OpenAIRE. 

This panel:

- discussed why community/good governance is important and how that relates to equity and inclusion
- provided some concrete models of good governance that other infrastructures can adopt in their own context

Speaker bio's:

Dominique Babini

Dominique Babini is from Argentina, holds a doctorate in political science and a postgraduate degree in information science. Open access and open science advisor, and previously repository developer and manager, at the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO), a network of 736 research institutions in 52 countries, where she now coordinates CLACSO's open access/open science International Campaign.

Janneke Adema

Janneke Adema is an Assistant Professor in Digital Media at the Centre for Postdigital Cultures at Coventry University. In her research she explores the future of scholarly communications and experimental forms of knowledge production, where her work incorporates processual and performative publishing, radical open access, scholarly poethics, media studies, book history, cultural studies, and critical theory. She explores these issues in depth in her various publications, but also by supporting a variety of scholar-led, not-for-profit publishing projects, including the Radical Open Access Collective, Open Humanities Press, ScholarLed, and Post Office Press (POP). She is currently Co-PI on the Community-Led Open Publication Infrastructures for Monographs (COPIM) project (copim.ac.uk). You can follow her research on openreflections.wordpress.com.

Tom Olyhoek

Open Access Week: Public release of the OpenAIRE-DARIAH Community gateway

Tuesday, 20 October 2020

A paramount challenge in present-day knowledge production is to communicate research results in ways that align with our increasingly digital and also increasingly diverse research workflows.

Research discovery platforms that have been developed from EU grants and will remain open to the public are game changers in this respect. They support the visibility and discoverability of all sorts of research outputs (datasets, software, protocols,  teaching materials etc.) to showcase a broader view of scholarship and enable a greater transparency of scholarly communication.

This webinar aims to introduce an instance of them, the OpenAIRE-DARIAH Community Gateway. Built on the top of the OpenAIRE Research Graph, the OpenAIRE Community Gateways  work as single access points to a virtual space that connects metadata descriptions of all scholarly objects that are important to the given community.

The DARIAH dashboard brings together publications and a broad range of research data (digital critical editions, plain text, archived data, audiovisual data, raw data, encoded documents, software applications, source code, images, structured graphics, databases, structured text, scientific and statistical data formats) that are hosted by DARIAH services such as NAKALA and TextGrid. As such, it significantly reduces the fragmentation of DARIAH research outputs across the web. A major benefit of such a discovery environment is that it provides scholarly communities with a single entry point to DARIAH-affiliated research outputs. This entry point, in turn, is embedded into the context of a bigger collection of Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage corpus enabling therefore arts and humanities researchers to find DARIAH outputs more easily, as an integral part of their discovery routine.

The webinar welcomes all the DARIAH communities, including humanities scholars, librarians, research support professionals, service providers and national representatives.

OpenAIRE Week! Building Open Science Gateways to open and linked research outcomes

Friday, 16 October 2020