This Monday, representatives from across the Catalan research system gathered to discuss the roadmap of the Barcelona Declaration and establish the work plan that will guide the centres’ open data strategy in the coming months. The meeting brought together CERCA centres, universities, research infrastructures, and research evaluation and funding agencies.

Bernardo Rondelli, from the SIRIS Foundation, one of the driving forces behind this initiative along with Curtin University (Australia), Leiden University (Netherlands), and Sorbonne University (France), explained the process of drafting the declaration and outlined its four main commitments:

– Promoting the use of open research data
– Using services and systems that facilitate open access
– Supporting the sustainability of the necessary infrastructures
– Encouraging collective action to accelerate the transition towards open research information

Examples such as Sorbonne University, which has chosen to rely solely on open metadata to evaluate its research, and the Open Metadata Leiden Ranking for bibliometric analysis created by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University, were presented as models for the Catalan research system.

The ultimate goal of this initiative, which complements others like COARA, is for research metadata to be open, accessible, and transparent. To date, the Barcelona Declaration has been signed by 98 institutions from 25 countries.

Key Areas of Interest and the Work Plan

Núria Benítez, head of CERCA’s open science unit, outlined the roadmap developed during the meeting of the Declaration’s signatory institutions last September at Sorbonne University. This document identifies several key actions to begin working on.

During the workshop, participants focused on the following priority topics:

– Journal article metadata (Topic 1)
– Replacing closed systems (Topic 6)
– Evidence of benefits (Topic 9)

The conclusions of the workshop will serve as the starting point for efforts over the coming months, culminating in the next meeting of the Declaration’s signatories on 28 May in Bologna.

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