Towards societal impact through open research

Interlinked research

Three interlinked project groups have been set up. The results of the projects shed new light on the nature and scope of open research, thus allowing funders, institutions, and researchers to identify emerging trends and best practices.

Project 1 forms the starting point to the investigation which is to map scholarly research in the last ten years to the global grand challenges of our times. As a basis for the mapping, five goals from the UN Sustainable Development Program have been selected. These are: SDG 3: Good Health and Well Being; SDG 4: Quality Education; SDG 7: Affordable and Clean Energy; SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities; and SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions, with more to follow.

Project 2 will take the results of SDG research mapping and conduct extensive impact analysis, especially in the area of non-academic usage This project group will draw on bibliometric and altmetric indicators as well as extensive qualitative data from surveys.

Project 3 will extend the analysis to the researcher and library perspective by first identifying the key areas of support for facilitating impact generation. Second, providing an overview of the existing tools and resources currently used by researchers; and third, developing a set of best practices on the most effective ways that researchers can optimize impact.

Together, the results of all three projects will shed new light on the nature and scope of the impact and societal relevance of open research, thus allowing funders, institutions, and researchers to identify emerging trends and best practices.

Project outcomes

The results of the projects groups will be released in open standards and further, made openly accessible to all stakeholders.Deliverables include: data sets, methodology outlines, trend reports, visualisations, etc.