Green light for the National Plan for Open Science

ICDI and its Competence Centre is recognised as an enabler of the process to make Open Science 'the new normal' and support Italian participation in EOSC

The National Plan for Open Science, an integral part of the National Research Programme 2021-2027, in compliance with Ministerial Decree no. 268 of 28-02-2022, and available on the website of the Ministry of University and Research at the following link https://www.mur.gov.it/it/atti-e-normativa/decreto-ministeriale-n-268-del-28-02-2022, becomes a reality. 

The National Plan for Open Science, which has just been published on the MUR website, constitutes a policy document that contributes to the implementation of open science, understood as a new paradigm for the creation of scientific knowledge based on transparency and cooperation, capable of enhancing research and scientific teaching, promoting knowledge as a common good and giving everyone the opportunity to access the results of scientific research.

The Plan proposes an overall vision, with specific strategies for five axes of intervention, which must interact to create an open ecosystem of publications, data, analysis tools, networked ICT infrastructures and services, evaluation and training, focusing on the essential value of knowledge sharing.

For each intervention, the specific objective is presented and the plan of actions to be developed by 2027 is set out, indicating further long-term objectives, with recommendations for the actors involved. A monitoring system is then identified that will be put in place by the MUR, to ensure the consistency of the initiatives proposed and arranged by the scientific community with the objectives defined in the Plan.

Thanks to the Plan, it will be possible to develop a national network infrastructure and a portal, which will connect the existing open archives of all disciplines and make scientific production searchable and accessible.

"The publication of this plan provides the Italian community with the basis to start aggregating existing and launching new developments," explains Donatella Castelli, CNR executive and one of the authors of the Plan. "A necessary effort," she adds, "to support the transition towards what is certainly a new approach to science that is more effective, transparent and connected to society than the current one.

The Plan's objective is also to create coordination between all the players involved, i.e. the MUR, research institutions, universities, ANVUR and research infrastructures, committing the system's players to clear and measurable objectives. 

In this scenario, the role of ICDI, the technical table that brings together the research infrastructures operating in Italy, public research institutions, universities and other institutional members, is recognised in order to support the synergies of the Italian contributions to the construction of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC), also by playing the role of mandated organisation in the EOSC Association and designing a national infrastructure for scientific data, potentially realisable within the framework of the PNRR. The Competence-Centre of ICDI together with the service www.Open-Science.it (ISTI-CNR, OpenAIRE) make information and reference tools on Open Science available to the scientific community. 

The acceleration brought about by the Plan will allow an increasing development of the role Italy can play at European level on the Open Science theme and within the EOSC initiative, highlighting national priorities and specificities and complying with the requirements of the European Commission's Recommendation (EU) 2018/790 on access to and preservation of scientific communication in terms of coordination and strategy at national level on Open Science.