115th Helmholtz Open Science Newsletter

Issue of July 08, 2026

1. Joint Statement on Open Science by Six Major European Organisations

The “Joint Statement on Open Science: Open Science as a pillar for strengthening the European Research Area” was published in 2026 by six leading European organizations – ALLEA, EIFL, IFLA, LIBER, OPERAS, and SPARC Europe. Set against the backdrop of the consultation on the European Research Area (ERA) Act, it provides an overview of the current state of Open Science (OS).

While significant political progress has been achieved through the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021), the European Council conclusions (2022 and 2023), and national OS policies, substantial challenges remain. Financial, linguistic, and geographical inequalities continue to restrict equal participation in and access to Open Science. The joint statement outlines which key obstacles require a coordinated approach.

The ERA Act, announced in the “Competitiveness Compass for the EU”, offers a vital opportunity to accelerate progress through targeted legislative measures. The European Commission plans to adopt the Act later in 2026. Among other goals, the initiative aims to improve conditions for researchers by fostering better research careers, mobility, and specific OS measures. The overarching objective is to better align the European Research Area with excellent knowledge, market innovations, and societal solutions. However, legislation alone will not suffice: achieving Open Science requires mobilizing a diverse ecosystem of political alignment, incentives, infrastructures, and community-driven initiatives.

2. Completion of the Transform2Open Project

From early 2023 to mid-2026, the DFG-funded Transform2Open project developed strategies and measures to shape the open access transformation, particularly at German universities and non-university research institutions. Transform2Open was a joint DFG-funded project involving the Central Library of Forschungszentrum Jülich, the University Library of the University of Potsdam, and the Helmholtz Open Science Office. A strong focus was placed on institutional cost monitoring for scholarly publishing, the organizational consolidation of library budgets and other funding sources, the development of a catalog of criteria as a negotiating tool for transformative journal agreements, the process optimization of open-access workflows in libraries, the creation of financial transparency in the open-access transformation, and the development of competency profiles in academic libraries. During the project’s duration, various workshops, presentations, and numerous interviews with experts from the open access community took place. By the time it concludes in mid-2026, the Transform2Open project will have established a robust foundation for the criteria, competencies, and processes of the open access transformation; a retrospective article summarizes this. Comprehensive documentation ensures that the project’s results can be applied in the future: The findings were disseminated through training sessions and informational events to promote their use within the community. By making the project’s resources, guides, publications, and presentations permanently available, the insights are accessible in the long term and can be reused by the community (see website and Zenodo). Further information: https://www.transform2open.de/en/

3. Open Science as a Game – OApoly

Scientific publishing has changed and diversified since the advent of digitization and open access. A wide variety of terms, concepts, publication channels, and options—as well as complex interrelationships with scientific reputation and research evaluation – make it difficult at times to keep an overview. The game “OApoly” offers an interactive introduction to this world. This “game about scientific publishing” makes the current, diverse avenues of publishing understandable in a playful and accessible way. The game is designed as a participatory activity – for example, for public events – and was conceived to offer new insights into publishing and open access to both a non-specialist audience and an academic audience, such as researchers, students, or library staff. The game was developed by employees of the library at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and has already been presented and tested at various events and conferences this year and last year. OApoly has now been released – for free reuse and for anyone to play. The published version uses general, institution-independent terminology, making the game suitable for a wide range of institutions and play scenarios. The next opportunity to play a round of OApoly will be at this year’s Open Access Days, taking place September 28–30 in Linz.

OApoly is not alone in the field of science games. In recent years, various games that explore scientific themes have been developed and released: The game “Publish or Perish” offers a humorous and parodic introduction to the chaotic and contradictory world of scientific publishing, as well as its flawed logic of reputation and competition. The game “The Publishing Trap” takes a similar approach, allowing players to step into the roles of researchers and thus become familiar with the world of science communication and publishing, with all its pitfalls. The game “Digital Footprint – Choose Your Own Adventure” addresses a related issue; it aims to raise researchers’ awareness of science tracking by illustrating the complex issue of the digital footprint and its consequences in academia through typical scenarios from the daily research lives of early-career researchers.

4. Data Descriptor on OA-dashboard collection published

As part of the DFG-funded OA Datenpraxis project, in which the OS Office participates, a comprehensive collection of open access dashboards was created. A data descriptor for this collection has now been published in Scientific Data. The data descriptor provides a detailed description of the data collection process and the development of the metadata schema, and makes the dataset available. The continuously growing collection, which now includes 70 dashboards, is available on the project website. The community can also propose additions to the collection.

5. 2026 Conference of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information

We are pleased to announce the 2026 Conference of the Barcelona Declaration on Open Research Information, organized by the Barcelona Declaration together with the Leibniz Association and the Helmholtz Open Science Office, to take place from November 24 to 25, 2026 in Berlin and online. Under the theme “Aligning policy and practical implementation”, the conference will bring together the international community of signatories, supporters, policymakers, and other stakeholders, creating a space to advance open research information across institutional contexts and explore how to align policy and practical implementation.

We are also pleased to open the Call for Proposals: We invite proposals for presentations and posters that share experiences, lessons learned, and reflections on both successes and setbacks related to the adoption and use of open research information across different institutional, national, regional, and international contexts. We particularly encourage submissions that address the interplay between policy and practice, and how they can reinforce one another in advancing the transition to open research information. Contributions can be submitted as lightning talks, longer presentations, and posters. The submission deadline is September 1, 2026. Fore more information and the submission form, see the full Call for Proposals.

6. Advancing excellence through better research assessment

Excellence in research is a central principle in the German research landscape, guiding funding decisions, hiring and promotions, as well as institutional strategies. At the same time, the concept of excellence remains elusive. In a recent workshop, the German National Chapter of the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) explored the connection between research assessment reforms and excellence in research. The resulting report describes excellence as a systemic attribute, which is fostered by the interplay of qualified personnel, supportive organizational structures, and appropriate framework conditions. From the perspective of the national chapter, initiatives such as CoARA promote excellence through more qualitative, context-sensitive, and comprehensive approaches. The workshop report highlights several key ways in which these reforms contribute to strengthening research excellence. Read the full workshop report in English or German.

7. FZ Jülich Team Wins Metascience Novelty Indicators Challenge

A research team from Forschungszentrum Jülich has won the international Metascience Novelty Indicators Challenge. The team from Jülich Systems Analysis (ICE-2) impressed the global metascience community with an innovative approach to assessing the novelty of scientific publications. Moving away from traditional citation counts, their AI-supported system analyzes the actual content of a study, relating it to the state of knowledge at the time of publication to provide a transparently justified novelty score.

This approach aligns with the broader Helmholtz mission to reshape research assessment toward Open Science principles. To foster an open research culture, the Helmholtz Quality Indicators for Software and Data Products were developed across disciplines. These indicators were specifically designed to provide incentives to promote the quality, reusability, and visibility of these diverse research outputs, gradually integrating them into our institutional reporting. Achievements like this challenge victory demonstrate how the scientific community can move toward a more open and transparent scientific culture. Congratulations to the team for driving forward the future of open research!

8. New NWO Awards: four awards for science that makes a difference

The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has restructured its science prizes and brought them together under a single umbrella: the NWO Awards. With them, NWO puts the spotlight on researchers and initiatives that go beyond research itself to promote societal impact, a healthy research culture, collaboration, and Open Science. The individual prizes are the Agora Award for Collaboration, the Arete Award for a Healthy Research Culture and the Atlas Award for Societal Impact. A fourth prize is the existing Leo Waaijers Open Science Award (established in 2024 by UKB, the Dutch consortium of university libraries and the Royal Library), which from 2026 onwards will be awarded jointly by NWO and UKB and is now part of this bundle. Each of the four awards carries a prize money of €50,000.

The previous winners of the Open Science Award are Anna van 't Veer (2024) and Chris Hartgerink (2025). While nominations for the other three awards can still be submitted until September 10, the nomination deadline for this year's Open Science Award has already passed. The winners will be announced on 14 October 2026 at the Open Science Festival in Delft.

9. European Commission provides momentum for Europe's digital sovereignty with Open Source Strategy

Modern science is fundamentally dependent on software to process ever-increasing volumes of research data. With rising complexity and the expanding use of AI, questions of digital sovereignty—such as protection against vendor lock-in and securing transparency and reproducibility—are becoming increasingly urgent. Against this backdrop, the European Commission's EU Open Source Strategy, which is part of its broader legislative initiatives for digital sovereignty (the “Tech Sovereignty Package”), provides important momentum. The strategy bundles its measures into four central core areas:

  • Digital Autonomy & Ecosystems: Promoting open-source alternatives to proprietary solutions and providing targeted support for EU startups through training, legal advice, and accelerator programs.

  • Security & Resilience: Investing in the upskilling of specialists, as well as developing tools for the maintenance of open software and mapping critical dependencies.

  • Modern Administration: Embedding openness and “sovereignty-by-design” in public authorities, strengthening Open Source Program Offices (OSPOs), and establishing fair procurement policies for open standards.

  • International Standardization: Globally promoting open-source solutions from the EU (e.g., in the fields of AI and digital identity) and stronger integration of communities into standardization processes.

For legal context, it is important to note: The strategy is a work program of the European Commission. It is not an EU regulation, a directive, or directly applicable law; it therefore does not create new legal obligations for member states, companies, or the scientific community. While the community praises Brussels for creating a comprehensive framework for the first time and recognizing the value of open source for Europe's innovative strength, this is precisely where the criticism lies: without a legal obligation, it remains up to the individual member states how strongly they actually promote open source. A detailed critical assessment of the ambitions and practical implementation of these new plans can be found in the current article on netzpolitik.org.

Save the Dates

Recommended Reading

Brodeur, A., Mikola, D., Cook, N. et al. Reproducibility and robustness of economics and political science research. Nature 652, 151–156 (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10251-x

Czerniak, A., Fischer, B. K., Genderjahn, S., Schrader, A., Vierkant, P., Hagemann-Wilholt, S., & Ziedorn, F. (2026). Persistente Identifikatoren in der deutschen Forschungsinfrastruktur: Bericht zu einer qualitativen Erhebung unter PID-Registrierungsagenturen, Aggregatoren, Zitationsdatenbanken und Infrastrukturinitiativen (1.0). Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20308904 

Di Cosmo, R., Granger, S., Hinsen, K., Jullien, N., Le Berre, D., Louvet, V., Maumet, C., Maurice, C., Monat, R., & Rougier, N. P. (2026). CODE beyond FAIR: a roadmap for reusable research software. Scientific Data, 13(1), 514. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-06705-6

Dörner, S. (2026). Open access licences and open metadata in transformative agreements. Front Matter. https://doi.org/10.59350/nv30b-3yg69 

Gibson, J., & Thaney, K. (2026). Who Will Keep Research Data Infrastructure Open and Running? Issues in Science and Technology 42(3), 32–37. https://doi.org/10.58875/GZJH2422

Jonge, H. de, & Rieck, K. (2026). Lost in transition. Quantifying the funding metadata gap in Crossref. MetaArXiv. https://osf.io/preprints/metaarxiv/3zm5r_v1/ 

Proske, U., Hillier, J., Gaillard, S., Blume, T., Queiroz Alves, E., Buiter, S., Carslaw, K. S., Elverfeldt, K. von, Emmerik, T. H. M. van, Ervens, B., Hut, R., Illingworth, S., Klotz, D., & Pyschik, J. (2026). Editorial: Introducing a new article type: limitations, errors, surprises, shortcomings and opportunities for new science (LESSONS). EGUsphere. https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-987

Rushforth, A., Gogadze, N., Skhirtladze, T., & Pölönen, J. (2026). Advancing open science through research assessment reform? Content analysis of CoARA action plans. Scientometrics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-026-05650-w 

Schneider, J., & Pampel, H. (2026). Mapping the landscape of Open Access dashboards – a dataset for research and infrastructure development. Scientific Data, 13(1), 677. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-026-07217-z

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