Case studies

Latvian Council of Science and Latvian researchers’ community on the way to OpenData and FAIR with ARGOS

Latvian Open Science Strategy 2021-2027: Advancing Research Performance through Argos DMP platform

Overview

Insights into Latvia's Open Science policy and implementation actions. This case study reflects on the collaboration of LCS with ARGOS explaining how different pieces of the Latvian research ecosystem had to be tweaked to meet certain standards that would allow the national research community to implement the FARP (Fundamental and Applied Research Projects) and SRP (State Research Programs) grants/projects.

Challenge & Scenario

The main challenge that ARGOS addressed was to implement the Latvian Open Science Strategy (2021-2027) and adhere to best practices of research data management. More specific, the concepts of DMP, OpenData, and FAIR, are new for many researchers and institutions in Latvia, leading to gaps in understanding DMP creation, terminology, standards, available resources, and capabilities. Therefore, there is the knowledge gap that needs to be eliminated, allowing the researchers and institutions to pass into the action of a DMP creation and data publishing according to FAIR principles. Through ARGOS they have the possibility to strengthen their RDM competences and save time when creating and publishing their DMPs.

Solution & Implementation

Latvian Research Council adopted ARGOS for FARP and SRP funded projects, creating a DMP template packaged in a blueprint that is available for use at ARGOS since February 2024.

Impact

This case study shows how ARGOS is connected to national ecosystems supporting not only DMPs but connections with local RDM services. The implementation of the LCS DMP template and blueprint has enabled the LCS to support researchers from over 70 state-funded projects to adhere to best RDM practices while writing their DMP. In the coming years, this number is expected to increase to between 75 and 100 projects annually.

The Latvian Council of Science (LCS) is an institution of direct administration under the supervision of the Minister for Education and Science. LCS operates in accordance with the Cabinet of Ministers Regulations No. 408 of June 30, 2020 “Regulations of the Latvian Science Council”, which have been issued in accordance with the Law on Scientific Activity. The aim of the LCS is to implement the state science and technology development policy, ensure expertise, implementation and supervision of research programs and projects financed from the state budget, as well as from the European Union structural funds and other foreign financial instruments delegated in regulatory enactments.

LCS highly valued ARGOS previous experience, offered solutions and the integration with other tools offered by OpenAIRE.

Mr. Arnis Kokorevičs, Head of Programmes and Projects Analytical Unit at the Latvian Council of Science.

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In depth description

Details

In 2022, the Latvian Open Science Strategy (2021-2027) was accepted with the goal of advancing the national research landscape according to European Open Science standards. The strategy is centered around three pillars that promote Open Science in scientific publications, FAIR principles in research data and Citizen science. Among other initiatives, it emphasises efficient research data management for all state-funded projects through the implementation of data management plans (DMPs).

The Latvian Research Council (LCS) formally adopted ARGOS in February 2024. The partnership followed a three-year consultation process during which the following actions needed to be addressed for LCS to get the maximum out of ARGOS and OpenAIRE services:

LCS projects to be included in the OpenAIRE Graph so they become automatically visible on ARGOS and their projects sorted under LCS funding organisation when selected by LCS affiliated researchers.

LCS Monitoring Dashboard to keep track of national Open Science policy implementation and evolution of practices.

National Dataverse repository to become interoperable with OpenAIRE, following the OpenAIRE Guidelines so that prefilling and referencing in DMPs is possible through ARGOS. [still in progress]

LCS blueprint and template to be developed on ARGOS in compliance with the DMP Common Standard and in accordance with the national policy.

All aforementioned developments show how ARGOS is connected to the Latvian research ecosystem supporting DMPs through connections with local RDM services. Today, the LCS blueprint includes only the FARP DMP template aiming to extend to SRP specificities in due time. This enabled the LCS to support researchers from over 70 state-funded projects to adhere to best RDM practices while writing their DMP.

The LCS blueprint provides access to crucial project information such as the project name, title, description, and funding organization, ensuring easy identification. Meanwhile, the LCS FARP template serves as a cohesive template for dataset descriptions in both fundamental and applied research projects.

Work continues to develop the DMP template for SRP projects as well as to offer the FARP template in the Latvian language. Moreover, LCS will gather feedback from Latvian researchers involved in crafting DMPs and publishing Open Data which will help improve current practices and ARGOS configurations.