Research support staff have a key role in helping Open Science to grow and thrive at Leiden University.

Our workshop at the Leiden Research Support conference started with an introduction to Open Science and how it is taking shape at our university. Next, we formed small groups to discuss what Open Science needs to thrive and how we all can contribute.

Our conversations quickly illustrated the variety of professional perspectives which contribute to Open Science. Researchers who want to make scientific knowledge openly available, accessible and reusable may (for example) need:

• Data stewards to make datasets FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable);
• Technical experts to build suitable infrastructures to store data;
• Lawyers to balance Open Science requirements with intellectual property, GDPR and contract terms;
• Communications professionals to share outcomes in an impactful way.

In other words, Open Science is a team effort.

It is important to emphasize that the examples above are just a few of the many possibilities. Each Open Science project will have different needs and not all activities need to be done at once. Professional services employees and researchers can work together to make choices that suit each individual project.

Get involved!

To achieve our vision, we need everyone’s help. We invite you to:

• Join the Open Science Community Leiden (OSCL) for peer-to-peer discussions on Open Science
• Contribute to Academia in Motion activities and discussions at your faculty;

• Share an idea, question or good practice within the OSCL, with support staff from the Centre for Digital Scholarship or the Open Science coordinator.