On the 20th of February, the UB and OSCG organised ‘Celebrating Openness’. Showcasing the winners of the Open Research Award 2024, the day brought people interested in promoting Open Science practices together.
And what better to kick-start the event with Ellen Carbo from ZonMw to give the keynote talk, ‘Open(ing) the Science: A Funder’s Perspective‘. Starting her talk by engaging the crowd on the different facets of why Open Science is good for research and society, working to ensure academic output is ‘open as possible, as closed as neccesary’ became clear.
Highlighting how Open Science is crucial for advancing research and innovation, Ellen presented how changes to make science more open can be supported by fundeing agencies. Following her talk, discussions on activities that researchers can take to engage funders on promoting Open Science practices were brainstormed. For those interested in the slides, you can find them here.
Following the keynote, there was promise of cake but seems there was some miscommmucation so participants had to settle for coffee and tea (again, my apologies!)
The Lightening Talks followed, where the winners of the Open Research Award 2025 were presented with their prize cheques and the opportunity to present their work in Open Science.
For those interested, the winners’ research are outlined as follows:
- This Abled City: Participatory Research on Accessibility with People with Disabilities
(Bettina van Hoven et al.) - Identification of age-related CpG sites from longitudinal avian methylomes
(Marianthi Tangili et al.) - An open-source solution for finding ancient viral integrations in genomic data
(Nadja Brait et al.)
Following lunch, the panel discussion on the Impact of Open Science in Academic Policy was with Eva Teuling (Faculty of Science and Engineering, ScienceLinX) and Davidu Cheruiyot (Faculty of Arts, YAG).
Discussing how the dissemination of Open Science practices across the university, a call to embed Recognition & Reward to enable further uptake was discussed. Noting that early career researchers are often spearheading the necessary cultural shift in academia, a call-to-action to support their endeavours was raised. Specifically looking at Public Engagement taken by academics, the current academic structure lacks incentives, rewards, and recognition for researchers to engage with the public. Thus ending the discussion with the question, should researchers get training in public engagement by default, just like they obtain university teaching qualifications?
Following the inspiring day, a borrel for audience members to mingle and share their thoughts with each other was the cherry on top of the sundae. As the organisers, we were very happy with the content of the speakers and the discussions that were sparked with the audience members. Looking to 2025, we hope to keep our annual award and event going.
More information to be released soon!
(images: courtesy of UB, Carlijn Kammenga and Ellen’s slides)