From Open Science Policies to Open Science Infrastructures: Reflections from UNESCO's IDSSD Global Conference
After three days of discussions, I came home with one impression: we have become quite good at writing Open Science policies, but the harder part is making them work.
The first monitoring cycle of UNESCO's Recommendation on Open Science reflected this quite well. Seventy nine percent of reporting countries have adopted or improved national Open Science policies since 2021. Only 32% currently have a national monitoring mechanism in place. The contrast between these two figures is revealing: Open Science is increasingly part of national research agendas, but implementation is progressing more slowly.
This same challenge emerged repeatedly throughout the conference.
During the thematic workshop on global Open Science infrastructure sharing networks, I presented results from a 2023 survey that OpenAIRE conducted together with COAR, LIBER and SPARC Europe, involving 394 repositories across 34 European countries. More than half of the repositories operate with two full time staff members or fewer. Around 47% of staff capacity is devoted to metadata and content curation, while software upgrades remain their biggest operational challenge.
Repository infrastructures are often discussed in terms of technology. The survey reminded me that they are just as much about people, funding and time. Someone has to curate the metadata, maintain the software, answer researchers' questions and make sure services continue to exist long after the project that funded them has ended.
The IMPACT-REPO Action Plan that followed the survey identifies interoperability, sustainable funding, AI readiness, networking and professional skills among the priorities for the coming years. What I appreciate about this work is that it treats repositories as strategic research infrastructures rather than technical outputs of individual projects.
The conversations in Paris also made me think about how connected these infrastructures have become. EOSC has demonstrated that a federated model can work at a continental scale. The OpenAIRE Graph builds on the same idea by connecting publications, datasets, software, organisations, projects and funders into a single scholarly communication ecosystem. Without interoperability and shared standards, none of this would be possible.
This is also one of the reasons why Research Intelligence plays such a central role in OpenAIRE's new strategy. Good monitoring, responsible research assessment and evidence based policymaking all depend on reliable and interoperable infrastructures. Research intelligence is only as good as the infrastructures that produce it.
Another discussion that stayed with me focused on data governance in times of crisis. UNESCO and CODATA presented a toolkit designed to help institutions prepare for emergencies, supported by a global survey involving 146 respondents from 60 countries. Participants identified common data standards, training and real world case studies as key priorities. Once again, the conversation came back to governance, people and preparedness rather than technology alone.
Leaving Paris, I realised that many of the challenges ahead are not particularly glamorous. Maintaining services, agreeing on standards, training staff and securing sustainable funding rarely make headlines. Yet these are increasingly the things that determine whether Open Science succeeds or remains an aspiration.
OpenAIRE's new strategy has been published at a moment when many of these questions are becoming more concrete. The policy direction is largely set. Our work for the coming years will be about building infrastructures that institutions and researchers can trust, use and sustain over time. That is probably less exciting than announcing a new policy recommendation, but it is where much of the real work now lies.
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