Research funders and open science

In Horizon Europe (HE), open science entails:

• Immediate open access to all scientific publications
• Responsible management of research data to ensure it is findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR principles)
• Sharing data based on the principle of "as open as possible, as closed as necessary"
• Facilitating the validation and reuse of research results and data by adhering to open science practices

Explore the requirements of Open Science in Horizon Europe through the webinar recording and presentation materials available on OpenAIRE (Zenodo). For assistance in interpreting the guidelines and implementing Open Science practices, you can contact openutu@utu.fi.

Also, take a look on the guidelines below:

In the Horizon Europe reference documents (Filter by programme > Horizon Europe), you will find, among others, the General Model Grant Agreement (MGA), in which the requirements for open publishing, open data management, licensing, and open science practices are listed in Annex 5, Article 17.

Program Guide of Horizon Europe: instructions on open science practices and information on the evaluation of applications

Annotated Grant Agreement (AGA): detailed instructions for meeting open science requirements and funding open science costs

European Research Council (ERC) Managing your project > Open Science

Horizon Europe - Work Programme 2021-2022 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)

European Commission (EC) Participant portal - Continous reporting guide: recipients of funding report on open publications, datasets, and other research outputs

OpenAIRE guides:

• How to comply with Horizon Europe mandate for research data management
• How to comply with Horizon Europe mandate for publications
• Open science in Horizon Europe proposal
• Research data management (RDM) in Horizon Europe proposals
• The OpenAIRE guides also include other useful guides, especially for good data management practices.

Application stage

The perspective of open science should be considered in several sections of the application form, but particularly in the methodology section, describing the open science practices of the research project:

• How appropriate open science practices are incorporated as an essential part of the proposed research methodology
• How the selection and implementation of open science practices are tailored to the nature of the work to better achieve the project's objectives [e.g., 1 page, varies between calls for proposals].
• Open science practices include, for example, preregistration, preprints, crowdsourcing, transparency of all research outputs and methods, open peer review, and citizen science. Preregistrations and preprints can be stored, for example, on the OSF platform.
• Justify if none of the open science practices are applicable to your project

Include data management costs and APC fees (not for hybrid publications) in the budget. Citizen science expenses can also be included in the budget.

Open publishing: Refer in the application form only to open access publications and describe the quality of the publications (not impact factors or publication channels). Specify where you intend to publish (e.g., Open Research Europe) and whether you intend to publish entirely openly (full OA).

Data management: The application form includes sections corresponding to a data management plan (such as data type and size, persistent identifiers, IPR rights, interoperability, licenses, data curation, and responsibilities for data management), although an actual data management plan is not yet required. Be clear, detailed, and precise. Justify your choices. Describe how the FAIR principles are implemented.

Requirements for open publishing in Horizon Europe:

• Peer-reviewed publications must be immediately self-arhived for open access without an embargo
  • The peer-reviewed accepted manuscript (AAM) or the version of record (VoR) must be deposited in a trusted repository
  • The repository can be an institutional repository, a subject-specific repository (e.g., Europe PMC or arXiv), or a general repository (e.g., Zenodo)
  • The publication must be self-archived even if it is published in an open access channel
  • The requirement for self-archiving also applies to long texts, such as books
  • The author must retain the necessary IPR rights to meet open access requirements > add a CC BY license to your manuscript (AAM)
  • The deposited version must be in a machine-readable format
• Both the publication and the deposited version must have a CC license
  • For scientific articles, a CC BY license or equivalent is required
  • For monographs, a license restricting commercial use or modifications (CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND, or CC BY-NC-ND) is accepted
• The publication must have a permanent identifier, such as a DOI
• Authors must have a permanent identifier, such as an ORCID ID
• Funding information must be included in the publication (project name, acronym, and number)
• APC costs for fully open access channels can be covered by the funding
  • APC costs for hybrid channels cannot be covered by the funding
• Check whether the journal complies with Horizon Europe requirements using the Journal Checker Tool
• Open access publishing is also recommended for non-peer-reviewed publications

Detailed instructions can be found in the OpenAIRE guide How to comply with Horizon Europe mandate for publications and the funding agreement guide Annotated Grant Agreement (AGA) as well as in your own funding agreement.

The Open Research Europe (ORE) publishing platform offers Horizon Europe program beneficiaries the opportunity to use a free open-access peer-reviewed publishing channel during and after grant agreements. Using the ORE publishing platform fulfills open access requirements and encourages the publication of pre-prints. ORE employs open peer review. Publications stored on the ORE platform are automatically deposited in the Zenodo repository after peer review.

OpenAIRE Explore connects everything related to your research (publications, datasets, ORCID, software, DMP, etc.).

Horizon Euroope's data management requirements

• Digital research data must be managed responsibly according to the FAIR principles
  • Findable - The data must be findable by others. The dataset, or at least comprehensive metadata describing it, should be searchable and findable online. The data must have persistent identifiers (PIDs; e.g., DOI number).
  • Accessible - The data should be accessible and usable by both humans and machines. The data should be stored in a reliable repository. Access to the data may be restricted, but the metadata should be accessible.
  • Interoperable - The data should use open and/or standardized file formats, and the metadata should employ machine-readable vocabularies, ontologies, and code lists to enable data exchange between systems.
  • Re-usable - The data should be well-documented (e.g., README files) to ensure it can be interpreted and reused. The tools necessary for reproducing the research results should accompany the data. The data should be licensed for sharing and reuse.
• A research project must have a regularly updated Data Management Plan (DMP)
• Metadata describing the data should be made openly available as soon as possible. The requirements for storing metadata are listed in Annex 5 of the Model Grant Agreement (MGA).The metadata must also comply with the FAIR principles and be stored under a CC0 license.
• Data should be stored in a reliable repository as soon as possible, but no later than the end of the project.
• Data should be made open as soon as possible according to the principle of "as open as possible, as closed as necessary." Approved restrictions on data openness are listed in Annex 5 of the Model Grant Agreement (MGA). Any limitations on openness must always be justified in the Data Management Plan. It is recommended to open the metadata describing the data even if the data itself is closed.
• Data should be made available under an open license, such as Creative Commons licenses. Recommended licenses include CC-BY or CC0.

• The repository also shares information about research outputs, tools, and instruments necessary for data reuse or validation (e.g., software, algorithms, protocols, models, workflows, laboratory notebooks).

• The research project reports the open publications, datasets, and other research outputs produced within the project.

Refer to detailed instructions on How to comply with Horizon Europe mandate for Research Data Management (OpenAire) and guidance from the Annotated Grant Agreement (AGA), as well as from your own funding agreement.

The guidelines are compiled based on the following materials:

England, J. (2024, March 19). Horizon Europe Open Science requirements in practice - OpenAIRE webinar. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10810347

Horizon Europe reference documents

OpenAire guides for researchers: Horizon Europe and Research data management guides