Open Science in EU projects

By Ingemar Pongratz

Communication and public engagement in European Union funded projects is one of the key aspects that need to be taken into consideration by EU project applicants. The European Commission has clearly expressed the need to take communication aspects into account when EU proposals are prepared and the proposers need to develop a clear strategy how the project will communicate their results to stakeholders and to the European Public and engage into meaningful and active two-way communication.

Horizon 2020 funding scheme is not an exception and communication activities are thus an important element in the Horizon 2020 proposal development process.

The European Commission has performed an extensive public consultation on the concept of Open Science (also called Science 2.0) and the outcome of this consultation has been published and discussed in a number of workshops. The final EU report, called:

Science 2.0: Science in Transition

summarizes the answers that the European Commission has received and the findings have been discussed among a number of stakeholders

The report shows that the Open Sciemce concept is well received and that Open Science has substantially increased the public interest for scientific results. It is also clear that scientific information has a deeper reach than previously, judged by the number of links from social media to scientific publications.

In fact the report on Open Science in EU projects demonstrates that Social Media is a key channel for Horizon 2020 and other EU funded projects when they attempt to reach to the public and sensible use of Social Media channels is important to consider for EU proposals.

Other substantial benefits include more and new forms of collaboration among scientists, bringing down collaboration barriers and faster (and possible better) uptake of scientific results in different innovation, which eventually will result in more products and services reaching the market.

The report on Open Science in EU projects also highlights barriers and concerns that need to be addressed in the future. One concern is coupled to reduced quality control on the dissemination of scientific results. In addition, there is a concern that there are few incentives for the individual scientists who engage in meaningful communication of results.

Furthermore, the Commission has identified several areas that need to be further developed such as:

• Continue the development of the concept behind Open Science
• Continue to work to remove barriers
• Develop new metrics to measure the efficiency and reach of scientific results to the public (Altametrics)
• Develop necessary infrastructure for Open Science

Clearly, Open Science is a interesting and very important concept that provides a lot of value for the European Union and to the European public.

Also, in time, we are Fenix Scientific / Pongratz Consulting are convinced that public engagement in research will lead to increased understanding among the European public to fund research, which of course benefits the research community as well.

Pongratz Consulting has an excellent track record in EU project communication, for example Ingemar Pongratz and Sofia Kuhn were awarded the Communication Star prize in 2011.

If you want to contact us and discuss how we can support your project or if you need assistance to develop proposals for different EU funding schemes like Horizon 2020, please contact us either through the Online contact form of by email to:

Ingemar.Pongratz (a) Pongratzconsulting.com

Sun behind the clouds by Ingemar Pongratz