Open Science Goals as a guide
To concretise Open Science for INBO, we have drawn up Open Science Goals (OSDs) for projects. The Open Science Goals concretise for each phase of the research cycle how we want to apply Open Science: from design, through data collection, storage, management and analysis to publication, archiving and encouraging reuse.
Through concrete Open Science Goals for projects, which we support through workshops and info moments, we want to:
- provide leads to get started with Open Science methods in all steps of research, and
- inspire them to commit to the quality and transparency of their research
Open Science Goals as a long-term perspective
The Open Science Goals offer an ideal picture for research at INBO. They came about through a participatory process within the organisation and paint a picture of where we want to go in the long term. We focus on incremental learning and growth to gradually apply these goals more broadly.
Open Science and the INBO teams
We encourage all INBO teams to actively engage with the Open Science Goals and encourage researchers to set aside time to delve into them. We invite colleagues to support each other in this. They can also call on support teams such as Biometrics, Methodology and Quality Assurance (BMK), Open science lab for biodiversity (OSCIBIO), Library and Information Management, and Data Management.
The team Open science lab for biodiversity specifically aims to make biodiversity research open and reproducible. They do this through open data publication and software development. They have specific experience with GBIF.org, data on invasive species and monitoring with GPS trackers, camera traps and radars.
Open Science and the Flemish Open Science Board (FOSB)
As a Flemish Scientific Institution (VWI), INBO is a member of the Flemish Open Science Board (FOSB). The FOSB was established in early 2020 with the aim of rolling out an open science policy in Flemish knowledge institutions.
The FOSB puts forward a number of specific targets (KPIs) regarding:
- the ORCID iD: unique identifier of an employee
- Data Management Plans: documenting how researchers handle research data during and after research
- FAIR data: data and metadata are findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable
- Open Access: free access to scientific publications
- Open Data: free access to data
In order to monitor progress on these targets, the VWIs (ILVO, INBO, Botanic Garden Meise, Hydraulic Laboratory, KMSKA, Heritage Agency) decided to collaborate and deploy resources for the use of data stewards, one of which is housed at INBO.
Concrete Open Science initiatives and achievements
- INBO has an open data policy and an open access policy for making research results accessible.
- Through this overview of our data & applications, we want to make them findable and accessible
- Through the "Open Science Goals" project, we combine our efforts around this theme
- Via the tutorials website and the organisation of Coding Clubs, we want to make INBO researchers in the use of computational methods and also make this material publicly available
- In addition, we actively engage in training & workshops on this theme, and under the heading of Open Science Cafes (at which we link the presentation of a concrete case to a practical workshop) we want to enthuse a broad INBO audience to get started with it
- Our own developments are available as Open Source software
- We inform our colleagues on a regular basis via an Open Science Newsletter (in Dutch)
- INBO is a member of the dmponline.be consortium and actively promotes Data Management Plans