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Open Science is a shared responsibility, and a successful transition will require a concerted effort from key stakeholders. EUA takes a comprehensive view of the transition to Open Science and works to build a forward-looking dialogue across sectors.
According to UNESCO, Open Science is “an inclusive construct that combines various movements and practices aiming to make multilingual scientific knowledge openly available, accessible and reusable for everyone, to increase scientific collaborations and sharing of information for the benefits of science and society, and to open the processes of scientific knowledge creation, evaluation and communication to societal actors beyond the traditional scientific community.”
Working in this field since 2014, the Association is actively supporting universities in the transition to Open Science, in close collaboration with the EUA Expert Group on Open Science.
As laid out in the EUA Open Science Agenda 2025, the Association has three key priority areas in Open Science:
Discover EUA’s Open Science Agenda
The transition to Open Science entails encompassing systemic, cultural and technical reforms. Since 2014, EUA has monitored the implementation of open science policies in universities in Europe and identified emerging trends and developments in this field, including citizen science, digital sovereignty and open education. The Association also regularly consults with its members to gather evidence on the implementation of open science policies and practices at institutional level through its Open Science Surveys.
EUA is committed to a global approach to a sustainable transition to Open Science. The Association has joined the UNESCO Global Open Science Partnership, with the purpose of working towards a global consensus on Open Science. EUA is also represented in all UNESCO Open Science Working Groups.
Open Access (OA) is the practice of granting universal and perpetual open access to scholarly outputs (such as journal articles, books, datasets, protocols, algorithms and software source codes, etc.) to both producers and users, through a system in which there are no barriers to participation (particularly those based on the ability to pay, institutional privilege, language or geography). It also includes reuse through open licensing.
EUA is actively engaged with national and European developments impacting the transition towards Open Access. The Association works to reclaim academic ownership of scholarly communication and publishing and provides its support to initiatives that share this goal. In particular, EUA is a firm supporter of the Rights Retention Strategy, as proposed by cOAlition S.
Finally, as a signatory to the Action Plan for Diamond Open Access, EUA is committed to the move towards a sustainable, community-driven Diamond scholarly communication ecosystem. EUA is also a partner of the Horizon Europe “Developing Institutional OA Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication” (DIAMAS) project, which focuses on delivering an aligned, high-quality and sustainable institutional open access scholarly publication ecosystem for the European Research Area.
Learn more about the DIAMAS project
First set up in 2017, the EUA Group of Negotiators provide its members with a safe environment to share information on national and European developments, experiences with challenging publisher negotiations and ideas to empower university leaders and negotiating consortia to explore different OA routes and develop strong negotiation strategies.
Since 2017, EUA has assembled comprehensive data on Big Deals between scholarly publishers and national consortia of libraries, universities and research organisations, including through the EUA Big Deals Survey and research on Read & Publish contracts.
The FAIR Data Principles offer a set of guidelines to ensure research outputs are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable. They apply to data, protocols, algorithms and software that underlie publications or have future value and a potential for reuse.
EUA strongly advocates for the importance of sharing and reusing research data and is working to raise awareness about the need for a common framework for the new FAIR data handling and management careers. Universities and researchers across Europe are increasingly expected to manage research data according to the FAIR principles, most notably through Horizon Europe. Universities are also actively developing the necessary services, policies, governance frameworks and skills for professional research data management.
EUA is also closely monitoring the development and implementation of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) and the activities of its Association (EOSC-A). Universities have a key role to play in achieving the EOSC objectives and ambitions, by federating their research data infrastructure to the new European environment and by giving researchers the skills needed to onboard its services. EUA is an observer of the EOSC Association and is represented in the EOSC-A Task Force on Research careers, recognition and credit.
Research assessment is the combination of qualitative and quantitative practices used to evaluate the quality and impact of research activities. Institutional assessment approaches are typically used to make decisions regarding hiring, career progression and funding allocation. As such, research assessment practices are also part of academic assessment, which is a more holistic approach that promotes parity of esteem between all academic activities in service to society, including research, innovation and teaching.
Research assessment reform is a strategic objective for EUA as part of the broader reform of academic careers - one of the priorities for action outlined in Universities without walls. 2022 saw a major milestone in achieving this, as the Association was at the heart of a major new initiative to advance crucial reforms to ensure better assessment of research, researchers and research organisations, the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment.
EUA itself signed the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment and joined the ensuing Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) in October 2022.
Visit the CoARA website
University R&I, and its synergies with education and service to society, is the premier gateway to the knowledge and skills needed for scientific progress and sustainable societal development. ...
The European University Association welcomes the adoption by the Council of the European Union of the Conclusions on research assessment and implementation of Open Science. ...
This report presents the detailed results from the EUA 2020-2021 Open Science Survey with a focus on research data practices at universities in Europe. ...
The EUA Open Science Agenda 2025 defines the Association’s priorities in this field and describes the current context, challenges and developments envisaged for the coming years. In addition, it out ...
This report specifically presents the findings on Open Access from EUA’s 2020-2021 Open Science Survey. ...
This report presents a collection of seven case studies describing how FAIR competences are being addressed through education and training programmes. The good practices offer examples of successful i ...
This report analyses the place of Open Science in the academic assessment approaches of universities across Europe. ...
This checklist is a guide for universities that wish to further develop their Open Access activities. In recent years, the scholarly publishing system has become much more complex and dynamic. The Ope ...
This report presents the findings of the 2020-2021 EUA Open Science Survey and provides evidence-based recommendations for institutions, researchers, research funders and policy makers on the transiti ...
This report and the accompanying online repository bring together and analyse case studies in responsible academic career assessment. Gathered by EUA, together with the San Francisco Declaration on Re ...
The process to renew the European Research Area (ERA) is gathering pace and is set to continue in the coming weeks, months and years. Building on previous policy positions, this policy input further e ...
EUA Strategic Plan The need for strong universities has never been greater in addressing societal challenges. The Covid-19 pandemic, climate change, resource scarcity, ageing populations, migration a ...
The European Commission’s Industrial Strategy for Europe and the European Digital Strategy launched in the spring of 2020 offer an opportunity for a broad and holistic approach to fundamental challe ...
Based on the data collected for the 2019 Big Deals Survey Report, this publication aims to deliver additional transparency of the dynamics of the scholarly publishing market by providing insights and ...
This report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of the current state of research assessment at European universities, and shows why and how institutions are reviewing their evaluation pra ...
The authors of “Plan S” have published revised implementation guidelines. The initiative aims to boost Open Access in scholarly publishing by 2021. EUA welcomes the guidelines, in particular the a ...
EUA and Science Europe have issued a joint statement on the need for research funders and research performing organisations as well as universities to combine their efforts to develop and implement mo ...
The Second EUA Big Deals Survey Report is an updated mapping of major scholarly publishing contracts in Europe. ...
The fourth edition of the EUA Open Access Survey Report tracks European universities’ progress towards Open Access by looking at the degree to which they have implemented institutional policies and ...
This briefing is the first step towards EUA’s commitment to raise awareness and support universities by providing an overview of the key concepts, issues and actors involved in research assessment. ...
The European University Association (EUA) would like to draw attention to the impact the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market will have on European higher education and research. ...
EUA has presented a comprehensive response to the “Plan S” consultation launched by Science Europe. Plan S is aninitiative for Open Access publishing launched in 2018 by an international g ...
On 4 September 2018, eleven national research funding organisations in Europe jointly published the so-called “Plan S”. Its aim is to accelerate the transition towards Open Access to resea ...
EUA has published a Roadmap on Research Assessment in the Transition to Open Science. The main objective is to raise awareness and support the EUA membership with the development of research asse ...
The EUA Big Deals Survey Report: The first mapping of major scientific publishing contracts in Europe presents data from 28 negotiating consortia. The data, which was gathered between July 2 ...
EUA Open Access Survey Report 2016-2017 tracks European universities’ progress towards Open Access by looking at the degree to which they have implemented institutional policies and practices i ...
In parallel with the efforts to persuade researchers to practice Open Science, and the need to develop new research assessment methodologies that fairly assess the scientific quality of the ...
This document presents a set of aims and recommendations for university leaders and National Rectors’ Conferences to assist them in facilitating effective research data management (RDM) and tex ...
EUA has been monitoring developments in the area of Open Science, in particular Open Access to research publications, from an institutional perspective, since 2007. The questionnaire ...
The publication and dissemination of scientific outcomes is part of the backbone of scientific activities. In general, the conditions for publishing and publication usage in recent years hav ...
The European University Association (EUA) welcomes the European Commission's (EC) 14 September 2016 proposal for a Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market. EUA views the proposed Directive ...
The European University Association (EUA) welcomes the European Commission's (EC) 14 September proposal for a Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market. EUA views the proposed Directive ...
The European University Association (EUA) strongly supports the “Amsterdam Call for Action on Open Science” launched during the conference “Open Science – From Vision to Action ...
The European University Association (EUA) agreed at its Council meeting on 23 October 2015 on the development of a roadmap to assist European universities in the transition to Open Access (OA). This i ...
The European University Association (EUA) welcomes the European Commission’s (EC) 9 December Communication outlining its intentions to move towards a modern, more European copyright framework. T ...
The Open Access checklist is intended as a general guide to key matters that should be considered when institutions plan to develop a policy on Open Access to research publications. It is primari ...
The response to the European Commission public consultation on “Science 2.0: Science in Transition” has been prepared in coordination with the EUA Research Policy Working Group. ...
The present briefing report is another EUA initiative in the field of Open Access (OA) policies, aiming at providing its membership with an informative policy overview. Its overall purpose is&nbs ...
In January 2007 EUA established a “Working Group on Open Access” for a one year period as a platform of expert opinion to provide both a voice for, and visibility to European universities ...
On 21 November, the European University Association’s first Research & Innovation Forum took place in Brussels. ...
The DIAMAS (Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication) project has recently launched a consultation on the first draft of a set of actionable recommenda ...
With the publication of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information, the European University Association is pleased to see new efforts to support the openness of the entire research process ...
Too often, European regulations and directives have been proposed with far-reaching consequences for universities, research centres and the people who work there, but with little or no consideration o ...
The DIAMAS project will organise the webinar “Navigating Europe’s Institutional Publishing Landscape” on Wednesday 7 February at 10:00 (CET). During the event, findings from the project’s Inst ...
Sparc Europe is organising the webinar “Rights Retention. Be the next mover! How to implement a policy supporting rights retention and open licensing in your institution” in the framework of the R ...
As part of the build-up to the Swedish Presidency conference on "The Potential of Research Data”, the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) Association, alongside its Swedish members, the Swedish Unive ...
For European public research and innovation actors, scholarly knowledge is a public good. Publicly funded research and its results should be immediately and openly available to all without barriers su ...
The Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV) is conducting a survey for the EU-funded GraspOS project. The results of the survey will be published by the end of August 2023 in a landscape report, ...
On 16 March, the first meeting of the newly recomposed European University Association Expert Group on Open Science (EGOS) took place in Brussels. ...
The DIAMAS (Developing Institutional Open Access Publishing Models to Advance Scholarly Communication) project has recently launched a survey on Diamond Open Access and the institutional publishing la ...
The call for proposals is now open for OS FAIR 2023 - the flagship initiative of OpenAIRE – which will take place on 25-27 September in Madrid, Spain. ...
The FAIR-IMPACT project recently launched an open call for EOSC FAIR Champions, aiming to select 12 experts to act as ambassadors for FAIR research data, engage their communities and advocate for the ...
Within its efforts to facilitate the uptake and implementation of Open Science, OpenAIRE recently compiled its services for Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) into one package and developed 6 pr ...
The call for projects is open until 22 February 2023. It benefits from a co-funding from the French National Research Agency on projects that fall under the diamond publishing model. ...
On 1 December 2022, the Constitutive Assembly of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) took place, marking the beginning of a new chapter in which a broad coalition of organisations ...
On 21-22 November, members of the European University Association’s Expert Group on Science 2.0/Open Science (EGOS) met in Braga, Portugal, and online for the final meeting of the group in its curre ...
The European University Association is pleased to announce that the Association will sign the Agreement on Reforming Research Assessment and join the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA ...
An extensive co-creation exercise throughout the first half of 2022 that gathered the interests and perspectives of 350+ organisations from over 40 countries led to the publication of an Agreement on ...
The European scholarly communication landscape has reached a tipping point in the last decade and is now in rapid transition towards the full-scale adoption of Open Access (OA) as a default practice f ...
Launched in January 2022 as a co-creation exercise, the process of drafting an agreement for reforming research assessment has reached an important milestone. On 8 July, the final version of the agree ...
The EuroScience Open Forum 2022 (ESOF2022) will take place from 13 to 16 July 2022 in Leiden, the Netherlands. Several EUA colleagues will organise and contribute to various sessions during the confer ...
EUA and other associations representing European universities, research performing organisations, research funding organisations, research libraries, and repositories in Europe have released a joint s ...
EUA, together with Science Europe, Dr. Karen Stroobants (in her individual capacity as researcher with expertise in research on research) and the European Commission, is leading the drafting of an agr ...
EUA has signed up to the “Action Plan for Diamond Open Access” which aims to promote a sustainable, community-driven Diamond Open Access (OA) scholarly communication ecosystem. Published on 2 Marc ...
EUA welcomes the approval of the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science and recognises its importance in providing a shared set of standards and actions for the further implementation of Open Science p ...
The EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF) 2022 will take place in Leiden (The Netherlands), between 13-16 of July. ...
EUA joined CESAER and Science Europe to call on all publishers to fully respect researchers’ rights and to end the use of restrictions and embargoes. In a joint statement published on 25 May, the th ...
Open science requires a sustainable, trustworthy and comprehensive network of repositories that can support researchers around the world in managing, sharing and preserving their data. Strengthening a ...
Ghent University’s Research Department organises a MSCA Master Class for incoming postdocs on 20 – 21 May 2021. Applications are open until 19 April. ...
EUA joins the global coalition of organisations that endorses the concerns raised by the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) about the report “Data Repository Selection: Criteria that M ...
The FAIRsFAIR project - Fostering Fair Data Practices in Europe – has prepared a series of recommendations for policy enhancement to support the realisation of a FAIR ecosystem and invite policy mak ...
EUA has joined the UNESCO Global Open Science Partnership. The purpose of this partnership is to work towards a global consensus on the transition to Open Science and the adoption of a UNESCO Recommen ...
During October, the DIAMAS project has been collecting feedback from stakeholders on a set of actionable recommendations for Diamond OA for institutional leaders, funders, sponsors and donor ...
Overall, Open Access is advancing well, but too often, institutional open access policies focus on journal publications, leaving out long-form publications, which are central in certain disciplines. ...
FAIR data is an essential component of the open research ecosystem. In this article, Alexander Refsum Jensenius argues that "FAIRification" can also benefit research-based and research-led education, ...
Open Science and gender equality are two movements with much in common, so why is a feminist perspective on Open Science yet to emerge? Pastora Martínez Samper tackles the question. "Feminism is the ...
Despite a proliferation of initiatives to promote Open Science, many obstacles persist. Here, Jean-Pierre Finance examines the progress that this movement has made and looks to the next steps, includi ...
For Research Europe, EUA’s Vinciane Gaillard and Stephane Berghmans weigh in on recent efforts to rebalance research assessment and look at how it could bring about a much-needed transformation of p ...
Reforming research assessment is a hot topic, as community-driven momentum now meets national and transnational political support. Here, EUA experts that have been closely involved in drafting a landm ...
Education’s digital transition has allowed students to study and researchers to work remotely throughout the pandemic, however we need to ensure technology is not abused and access is open to all.To ...
How can universities address digital and academic sovereignty through jointly coordinated actions in education, research and research assessment? VSNU’s Darco Jansen outlines the Dutch example, prov ...
EU policy makers often fail to consider the specific nature of higher education, research and innovation in legislation aimed to shape Europe’s digital transformation. EUA expert Bregt Saenen explai ...
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the European University Association, Andrée Sursock analyses two decades of transformation and renewal in Europe’s higher education landscape, and charts ...
UNESCO’s Global Open Science Partnership is well-timed in promoting a much-needed global dialogue on Open Science. EUA expert Bregt Saenen discusses the initiative, its evolving backdrop and why it ...
The Covid-19 crisis led to major push towards Open Access, which is now well on its way to becoming a global reality. EUA Board member Patrick Lévy looks at this key moment in the movement’s histor ...
EUA President Michael Murphy assesses the challenges and opportunities brought by the coronavirus pandemic to Europe’s universities, in particular in relation to funding, digital tools, Open Science ...
The Swedish Bibsam Consortium is taking a leading role in the transition to Open Access and aims to switch from “read-and-publish” agreements to “pure publish” deals after 2024. This next gene ...
While Europe discusses its data strategy, the digital transformation must be on the radar of universities. Digital skills, the infrastructure and support for “FAIR” research data management, and t ...
Open Access publishing needs new business models for universities and disciplines that want to support Open Access but are short on resources. Martin Paul Eve explains how the Open Library of Humaniti ...
Scholarly publishing is at a crossroads between commercial vendors and community-driven services. Eloy Rodrigues from the University of Minho makes the case that more research-centric, dissemination-o ...
The Open University of Catalonia is a signatory to the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). The university’s DORA Working Group explains how by becoming a signatory, the universi ...
The transition to Open Science and Open Access is gaining momentum in Europe, making it a shared responsibility for universities and their main partners to review how they incentivise and reward resea ...
Since the beginning of time scientific research has been based on exchanges between peers: personal letters, books, articles in specialised journals. But the last 70 years have seen a burst in this se ...
The European University Association (EUA) and its Expert Group on ‘Science 2.0/Open Science’ are supporting universities in Europe in the transition to Open Science. Here, Lidia Borrell-Damián, D ...
To address the challenges that the transition of institutional publishing activities towards full Open Access (OA) and Open Science (OS) still faces, DIAMAS will deliver an aligned, high-quality, and ...
Making data FAIR – findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable – is becoming more and more the standard expectation for European research projects. ...