Infrastructures supporting open science
Fit-for-purpose and user-friendly infrastructures are a prerequisite for researchers and organisations to put open science into practice. Through systems, services, and protocols, research results can be collected, stored, managed, and made available in a standardised way. This supports both scientific collaboration and the use of research results across the public sector, business, and civil society. Open services and repositories therefore play a vital role in ensuring access to and dissemination of research information.
Digital and organisational infrastructures
Infrastructures that support open science include the systems, services, and resources that make it possible to provide access to, preserve, and manage research results in accordance with principles of openness. They may be both technical and organisational in nature and are necessary for research data, publications, and methods to be shared and reused.
Technical infrastructures include, for example:
- data archives
- publishing platforms
- research information registration systems
- identifiers such as DOI and ORCID
- tools for data management and versioning.
Many of these infrastructures depend on national or international collaboration to ensure long-term sustainability and access.
Organisational infrastructures include support functions at universities and research institutes, such as:
- libraries
- IT departments
- research data support services.
These functions provide both practical and legal support on matters related to data management, accessibility, licensing, and archiving. Clear responsibilities and effective collaboration between actors are often essential for the infrastructure to be fit for purpose.
When developing or procuring infrastructure, it may be relevant to take into account interoperability, long-term stewardship, access to technical expertise, and opportunities to connect with European and global systems, such as the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). Coordination between national initiatives and local needs is a recurring consideration in the planning of such investments.
(An overview of Sweden’s engagement in EOSC is available on the EOSC Association’s website, under EOSC Sweden.)