Open Science on Track Day: Marks the next phase of open science

Almost two hundred people from inside and outside UU; scientists, students and policy makers, came to the Open Science on Track day at the Railway Museum in Utrecht on December 13, 2023. Together they marked the steps the university has taken in the field of open science in recent years.

The event took place to mark the conclusion of the Open Science program, which ran from 2018-2023. But, as Rector magnificus Henk Kummeling emphasized during his opening, "the program ends, but with open science we continue together. There is still much to do".

Simone Buitendijk's keynote focused on the right to equal access to knowledge. Both here in Europe, in the global north, but especially also in the global south. According to the Knowledge Equity Network, the network Buitendijk co-founded, radical collaboration is the strategy to get there. Away from the competition model, toward inclusive, transdisciplinary collaborations based on empathy and compassion. Utrecht University became key partner of the network in December 2023.

During the Open Science Bazaar, short pitches gave participants an idea of the staggering number of open science initiatives that have been launched at the university in recent years; from an open access scientific student journal to FAIR Data & Software cheat sheets and from history of the word scientist to how scientists and external partners are developing knowledge about AI together. 

The Open Science on Track day serves as an important stop on the way to Utrecht University's ambition to become an open science university.  The completion of the Open Science program marks the transition to a new phase, in which both the 'Open Science office' and central 'open science experts' will play a crucial role in promoting and embedding open science throughout the UU community.