Scientific research is a complex system that is, increasingly, based on the possibility of collecting and exchanging information, knowledge and data with ease and reliability. In this context, research infrastructures are crucial elements for scientific and technological development, as they provide the necessary resources not only for the collection, analysis and sharing of data, but also for the establishment of collaboration between researchers and the provision of a variety of essential services, such as access to data itself, possibilities for analysis, portability and federation in large-scale systems.
Research infrastructures for Open Science, considered one of the fundamental pillars in the UNESCO Recommendation for Open Science, were the focus of an entire session within the GenOA Week, the national event organized on the occasion of the international week dedicated to Open Access. GenoOA has been a staple of the open science community in Italy since its inception in 2019 and is being organised by the University of Genova (Università di Genova), the Italian Institute of Technology (Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia - IIT), the Italian National Institute of Nuclear Physics (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare - INFN), the Italian National Council of Research (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche - CNR) and the Liguria section of the Italian Association of Libraries (Associazione Italiana Biblioteche, Sezione Liguria - AIB Liguria), under the patronage of the Italian Association of Libraries (Associazione Italiana Biblioteche).
The session, organized by the "Alessandro Faedo" Institute of Information Science and Technologies (ISTI), was held on the 7th of November at the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) headquarters in Genoa; it aimed at exploring the contribution of research infrastructures to the implementation of open science practices, promoting inclusivity, transparency and reproducibility. The session’s presentations highlighted the leading role of the CNR in creating and maintaining research infrastructures of different types, from horizontal ones, offering services to research communities in different disciplines, to thematic ones. Horizontal research infrastructures include, for example, D4Science (ISTI) and OpenAIRE (ISTI is one of OpenAIRE’s major technical partners). Some of the more popular ones are IPERION HS, E-RIHS and H2IOSC, dedicated to cultural heritage, ETIP geothermal for geothermal energy, ITINERIS for environmental sciences, RISIS, for studies on development and innovation policies, FOSSR dedicated to the social sciences and JERICHO, EMSO and ICOS for marine sciences.
The session focused also on how CNR-ISTI's expertise and services have been successfully reused to provide communities with a variety of digital tools for open science. This approach not only enhances the concrete results of CNR research in the field of Open Science, but also improves the sustainability of infrastructures, especially for those that cannot follow the path of ESFRI, the specific European forum for high-level research infrastructures in Europe. Some examples worth mentioning in this category are IPERION HS, ITINERIS, FOSSR and RAISE, that utilize tools for collaborative research and thematic virtual research environments, provided by the D4Science infrastructure, that guarantee the reproducibility of the results, and the transparency of the digital processes applied for their production.
This type of research infrastructures (IPERION HS, ETIP geothermal, RISIS, DARIAH) also utilise OpenAIRE services such as: the repository Zenodo, used for the FAIR publication of search results, the OpenAIRE CONNECT service, to facilitate the discovery of research products and promote good practices within the community; and the OpenAIRE MONITOR to monitor the adoption of open science practices and the impact of the infrastructure itself on the scientific landscape.
Additionally, representatives of thematic infrastructures underlined the importance of transnational access (TNA) programmes to ensure free access to physical infrastructures such as marine observatories, not only for researchers but also for businesses, thus contributing to stimulating innovation.
Another topic that gained traction during the presentations was the need to involve research communities in the creation of infrastructures through processes of co-creation, personalization of services, and collaboration on innovative, inter- and multidisciplinary research topics. These issues may in fact require an evolution of thematic and horizontal research infrastructures to be addressed efficiently and effectively.
We would like to thank the speakers who spoke at the session representing the research infrastructures:
- Laura Benassi, CNR-INO, for IPERION-HS, E-RIHS and H2IOSC
- Roberto Bozzano, CNR-IAS, for the W1M3A observatory and the EMSO infrastructure
- Leonardo Candela, CNR-ISTI, for the D4Science.org infrastructure
- Chiara Eva Catalano, CNR-IMATI, for H2IOSC and the Ligurian ecosystem RAISE
- Marcello Magaldi, CNR-ISMAR, for JERICO
- Paolo Manghi, CNR-ISTI/OpenAIRE AMKE, for OpenAIRE
- Herbert Natta, CNR-IMATI, for the Ligurian RAISE ecosystem
- Emanuela Reale, CNR-IRCrES, for RISIS and FOSSR
- Toma Tasovac, Belgrade Center for Digital Humanities, per DARIAH
- Eugenio Trumpy, CNR-IGG, for ETIP Geothermal and ITINERIS
