Gearing up for open science
With 184 million euros, the new governing body ‘Open Science NL’ will accelerate the rise of open science until 2031. That is what the Ministry of Education agreed on with universities, universities of applied sciences and other organisations such as NWO and KNAW on 29 March. They did so at the TU Delft Library. The governing body operates under the wings of research funding body NWO.
There are still many questions surrounding open science. Most scientists support the ideal, especially the younger ones. But in everyday practice, there sometimes appear to be obstacles, such as funding or the lack of a good infrastructure for sharing data. And how, for instance, can you share data without violating the privacy of test subjects? Also, data should be usable by other researchers, with different questions. None of this is self-evident.
Moreover, some knowledge can unexpectedly get a military application and the whole world can then abuse that. The coalition agreement states that open science should become the norm, ‘provided that national security is not compromised in the process’. (HOP, BB)
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