Dutch Research Council allocates grants for open science

More and more scientific articles can be read free of charge, but what about the underlying data? Open science espouses the ideal that scientific data should be easily accessible too, which has a number of benefits. First, it avoids duplicate work. Researchers can reuse the data or combine it with other data to arrive at new insights. It also makes it easier to check articles for inaccuracies.

Paving the way
But sharing data is easier said than done. The Dutch Research Council is now funding projects that aim to pave the way. Researchers are working on issues such as effective data visualisation in software that is available free of charge and knowledge sharing within a specific field of study.

That ideal might be achievable for a spreadsheet with figures, but what about interviews, observations and historical sources? In some of the approved projects, for instance, researchers are going to look at how they can share qualitative research and historical source material effectively.

Escape room
Another project aims to convince researchers by “allowing them to get to know various aspects of open science in a fun way” in an escape room.

A total of one million euros was available in this first round of the Open Science Fund.

Open Science Fund Allocations, 2021