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Newsletter of the Programme Open Science, June 2023

Here is the latest issue of our newsletter, which informs you regularly about our programme and its scope: From general updates on the Open Science Programme, to Open Access and Open Research Data tools, events, and open positions.

Subscribe to this newsletter here and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates in the meantime.

Would you like to announce your OA or ORD event or share an update from your Open Science project? We invite you to send us your news item to by the first Monday of each month (e.g. by 3 July for the July Newsletter).

Many thanks and best regards,

The Open Science Team at swissuniversities

 


FROM THE OPEN SCIENCE PROGRAMME

 

Updated: Open Access Call for Communication & Awareness Raising Projects

The Open Science Programme of swissuniversities welcomes applications from eligible higher education institutions focusing on Awareness Raising & Communication on a rolling basis.

The application guidelines have been adapted to encourage communication and awareness raising activities with a national and/or a regional scope.

More information regarding the Open Access Implementation Plan, the relevant action lines and the requirements are available in the document "Open Action Lines for the 2023 Open Access Call for Projects".

For more information about this call, see the guidelines here.

 

Call closed: 2023 Open Access Call for Projects

The call for projects Open Access for the action lines Participation to international initiatives, Alternative forms of publication, Research assessment and Setting up of shared services & e-infrastructures is now closed.

The applications received will be evaluated by the Open Science Programme Reviewers' Pool. Based on their recommendations, the Open Science Delegation will take the funding decision in Autumn 2023. For more information about this call, see the guidelines here.

 

You can find the contacts of Open Access officers at Swiss higher education institutions on our website. If there are any changes at your institution, please .


 

ORD: Swiss Open Research Data Grants – CHORD

swissuniversities and the ETH Domain jointly organise the Swiss Open Research Data Grants programme. This collaboration enables coherent and broad bottom-up support for ORD practices across disciplines and across higher education institutions in Switzerland. This grant programme thereby facilitates synergies and complementarities in the ORD landscape. Researchers from all disciplines and all types of higher education and research institutions are welcome to submit their project ideas.

--> The second call for Track C “Contribute projects” is now open!

Junior and senior researchers are invited to submit project ideas, which improve existing ORD practices/tools as well as their scientific impact and technical quality by:

  • Advancing already existing open communities by contributing a piece of software, data or hardware which improves an established ORD practice;
  • Integrate ORD into existing infrastructures (also on an international scale);
  • Curating and improving available ORD; and
  • providing community services, such as the organisation of a workshop or training.

Budget: the max. overall budget is CHF 100,000 (including matching funds).

The submission deadline is 19 July 2023, and the evaluation decision is scheduled for October 2023.

Duration: the max. project duration is from 1 Jan 2024, until 31 Dec 2024.

The application guidelines for Track C are available here.

 


ADDITIONAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND EVENTS

New Working Group on Open Research Data: New Members welcome!

The Swiss Reproducibility Network (SwissRN) is a peer-led consortium that aims to promote and ensure rigorous research practices in Switzerland by

  • establishing targeted training activities,
  • developing and evaluating research improvement efforts,
  • disseminating best practice,
  • engaging with stakeholders to coordinate efforts across the sector.

The core of SwissRN activities happens at the local nodes, the working groups, and the Academy of the network. Local Nodes are self-organizing groups of researchers and staff interested in rigorous research practices including research reproducibility and improvement. Local node activities may include cross-disciplinary journal clubs, Open Science working groups, peer groups for research proposal review etc. Researchers of SwissRN collaborate in working groups, in which they are proposing and carrying out concrete projects on specific topics. You can find more information on the SwissRN working groups on https://www.swissrn.org/initiatives.  The SwissRN Academy connects Early Career Researchers who are interested in reproducibility, metascience, good research practices, and transparency. 
You can find more information about SwissRN on its website: www.swissrn.org and subscribe to the SwissRN mailing list. New members are always welcome. If you are interested to join SwissRN and/or to start a local node at your institution, please contact the SwissRN Coordinator Manuela Höfler (manuelamaria.hoefler@clutteruzh.ch). 

The group is open to all researchers interested. Find out more about what interesting projects the group wants to initiate and contact Leonhard Held (leonhard.held@clutteruzh.ch) for further information.

 

First Call for National Prize for Open Research Data

The Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences are launching the National Prize for Open Research Data (ORD Prize). This is part of the Action Plan "Open Research Data" implemented by the Academies as part of the National Strategy for Open Research Data. This newly launched prize aims to recognize researchers for innovative practices in the field of Open Research Data (ORD) and aims to promote the transition to open research practices.

In 2023, the National ORD Prize is themed "Reuse of Research Data." Researchers from all career levels and scientific disciplines can apply. Early-career researchers are also encouraged to apply. In total, three ORD prizes will be awarded: a Golden Award (10’000 CHF), a Silver Award (7’000 CHF), and a Bronze Award (4’000 CHF).

Applications can be made using the application form on the website and are accepted until 31 Aug 2023, 5pm CEST.

 

Looking back: swissuniversities Webinar: 'GOAL – Unlocking the Green Open Access potential to close the gap'

--> Presentation slides from 25 May 2023 now online available.

During the past twenty years Open Access has changed the way we publish and how we access information. And yet, there is still a lot that can be done. The world of professional and practice-oriented journals, a large field of its own, has not been in the focus of Open Access strategies yet.

This kind of publications are still left out of the picture notwithstanding the role they play for universities of applied sciences and of teachers’ education and, from a more global perspective, the relevant role they can play with the expansion of Open Science into broader public.

In this webinar we highlight the impact of professional and practice-oriented journals to academic publishing. As these publications often arise from collaborations with non-academic experts or private partners, they also play an important role for Citizen Science.

The GOAL project can decisively contribute to include this kind of publications and their stakeholders into the National Open Access Strategy and make them more visible in the world of academic publishing. By targeting a cooperation between Universities of Applied Science/Teacher Education and national players such as professional societies or small publishers, GOAL closes the gap to the field of bigger players which have strongly been in the focus of the National OA Strategy so far.

In this webinar, dedicated to the green road of OA publishing, Dr Enrique Corredera Nilsson and Valérie Andres from the project GOAL, presented the efforts to make publication opportunities in Green Open Access more visible. The project GOAL provides an overview of the Green OA landscape in Switzerland and develops model processes to better exploit the potential of Green OA, especially for practice-oriented journals. In the open discussion that followed, the approximately 30 participants addressed the opportunities and concrete challenges of Green OA in Switzerland.

The Open Science Team of swissuniversities regularly organises webinars and welcomes suggestions for webinar topics relating to Open Science in Switzerland.

Have a look at the Presentation here and further information on GOAL: www.opengoal.ch/

 


OPEN POSITIONS

Join Our Team: Exciting Job Opportunities at swissuniversities

Have a look at the open positions and internship opportunities in the areas of Higher Education Policy, Teaching, and Research and Development.

More information can be found here.

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