Open Science

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© ERA-NET NEURON

Transparency, reproducibility and independent verification

NEURON’s implementation of standards in the design and implementation of research reflects contemporary good practice for all research, and reinforces that these standards are important for ethical reasons and to obtain the best possible scientific results. On the lines of transparency, reproducibility and independent verification in biomedical preclinical research the next possible step is to share all data, and results of all analyses as well as – in ultimate consequence – any relevant syntax or code.

Open science refers to the practice of providing online access to scientific information that is free of charge to the end-user and reusable, including both: the peer-reviewed scientific research articles and/or research data.

NEURON clearly states in its call texts that all the publications resulting from funded projects must be published in adherence to the EC Open Science Policy. The European Commission (EC) provided the Guidelines on Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data and the guidelines on data management. A guide on open science for H2020 and specific open science training is currently provided by the FOSTER project.

The Commission facilitates Open Access through different initiatives, such as the European Open Science Cloud.

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European Open Science Cloud

The European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) was created by the EC in 2015 with the aim of promoting the access and reuse of research data, which comes out of publicly funded research. EOSC provides a set of services related to research data infrastructures in Europe and other related services (data management, data sharing data storage, data security…) that enables to follow the FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) principles.

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EOSC-Life

In this framework, it was created EOSC-Life, which brings together the 13 Life Science ‘ESFRI’ research infrastructures to create a collaborative space and a catalogue of services for the management, storage and reuse of data in biological and medical European research.

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Horizon Results Platform

In addition, the Commission recently created the Horizon Results Platform (HRP), a matchmaking tool to publish Key Exploitable Results to promote them to targeted stakeholders.

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European Health Data Space

One of the priorities of the Commission 2019-2025 is the creation of a European Data Space, including the health sector. The European Health Data Space (EHDS) will promote better exchange and access to different types of health data and will be built on three pillars: a strong system of data governance and rules for data exchange; data quality and strong infrastructure and interoperability. To achieve this objective, Member States will be supported by a new “Joint Action for the European Health Data Space”.

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Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe

The Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe (OpenAIRE) is a network of Open Access repositories, archives and journals that suppor Open Access policies, promoting the reuse of data research results, across scientific disciplines. It also offers support services for researchers, such as the National Open Access Desks. Other useful listings of repositories are:

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ELIXIR-CONVERGE

For data management tools, ELIXIR-CONVERGE is a project funded by the European Commission to help standardise life science data management across Europe. To achieve this standardisation, the project has developed a data management toolkit for life scientists.

Possible additional information is available here:

  • DMPonline is a tool created by the UK’s Digital Curation Centre to assist teams in producing data management plans (DMPs), from proposal preparation through project completion.
  • Data Stewardship Wizard (DSW), is a tool to create Data Management Plans, through a Knowledge Model with different questions regarding the data management of the research project. FAIRDOM is an association that organises the development and distribution of open-source software (the FAIRDOM Platform), provides software services for public use (the FAIRDOMHub), and runs training and community development events, amongst other activities.
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Human Brain Project

The Human Brain Project, the largest brain science project in Europe, has developed EBRAINS, an open European research infrastructure in the fields of neuroscience, computing and brain-related medicine. EBRAINS Data and Knowledge services facilitate sharing of and access to research data, computational models and software, ensuring data consistency and quality. Within EBRAINS it has been developed the open Metadata Initiative for Neuroscience Data Structures, openMINDS.