Actors and their areas of responsibility

The national guidelines identify a number of actors who have overall responsibility for the transition to open science. These actors have different roles and responsibilities in implementing open science initiatives and actions.

This section identifies actors and responsibilities at an overall level. Within each area, they are described more concretely, taking into account the specific characteristics of the field.

Researchers

A key starting point for the work with open science is that research is conducted by researchers - individually and in groups - and that responsibility for the research processes and results lies primarily with those conducting the research. A transition to open science needs to occur in the everyday research practices involving research data, in scholarly publishing, and throughout the research process. How a transition to a more open science is achieved will vary among different scientific disciplines, research areas, and institutions. It is a necessary consequence of the freedom of research that the responsibility for driving processes and activities towards a more open science needs to be formulated and implemented where the research is conducted.

Researchers have a responsibility to continuously work towards open science in their daily practices by developing approaches themselves and by applying the approaches and routines developed by relevant organisations and within specific fields.

Researchers’ seeking of support and guidance also enhances an organisation's capabilities.

Research performing organisations

Organisations engaged in research activities have a responsibility, as employers and actors within the research and innovation system, to promote open science. This involves providing concrete support in the form of knowledge and expertise, technical tools and infrastructures, such as platforms and storage space, as well as the development and implementation of norms and regulations, information and training, and more. The university and university college libraries have played a leading and pioneering role over the years in the work for open science and have highly developed competence in the field.

In cases where open science requires personnel and/or financial resources, research performing organisations need to take responsibility for necessary priorities. How this is done also needs to be managed within the framework of each organisation.

Through their joint appropriation directions, universities and university colleges are tasked with developing the work with open science. SUHF plays a significant role in coordinating the higher education sector's work with open science.

Agencies that conduct or fund research and development need to develop and refine policies for open science that align with the national guidelines.

Research performing organisations, together with research funders, need to develop incentive structures that promote and value open science, such as in merit assessment and research evaluation. This work needs to align with international and national initiatives aimed at reforming how research is evaluated.

Research performing organisations, with universities taking a leading role, are responsible for developing and implementing policies and incentives for open science, as well as providing resources, support, and guidance to enable this work.

Research funders

Public research funders have a designated responsibility to contribute to the transition to open science. This includes work with policies and conditions related to research grants and work with funding, for example, publication channels or infrastructures for open science.

Funders also play a crucial role in driving development forward by developing incentive structures that promote and value open science, for example in evaluations of merit, together with research performing organisations.

Research funders other than the public ones are also important actors and can work to set standards through policies and conditions that promote open science.

Research funders need to collaborate with universities and other key actors on incentives, norms and rules as well as payment streams and funding of open science.

Expert agencies

Given the multitude of actors and organisations that play important roles in the transition to open science, there is a clear need for coordination and coordinated leadership of the work.

Through their government instructions, KB and VR are responsible for coordinating open access to publications and research data, respectively. Digg is responsible, through its instructions, for promoting the availability and reuse of open data from the public sector. Continuing clear mandates and coordination tasks are essential prerequisites for the process of transition towards an open research and innovation system to function.

Expert agencies with mandates regarding open access need to continue monitoring the national work on open access to scholarly publications and research data.

A broader monitoring of the transition to open science needs to be developed, along with periodic monitoring and updating of the national guidelines for open science.

This may also involve and include other agencies, not least research performing organisations, primarily universities and university colleges.

Other agencies and actors

Other agencies and actors operating within or closely related to the research and innovation system need to actively follow developments and ensure that their work contributes to the transition to open science by, for example, developing policies on dissemination and sharing of research results. This includes agencies with specific research-related mandates, such as agencies with responsibility for archives and for agencies’ work with digitisation of materials that can in turn be used in research.

Other organisations representing civil society or specific interests have an important role to play in creating a common understanding of open science, for example by raising awareness of open science in various contexts or by disseminating research publications and other research information to the public.

Last modified

19 October 2025