FOSTER Plus
FOSTER Plus (Fostering the practical implementation of Open Science in Horizon 2020 and beyond) is a 2-year, EU-funded project, carried out by 11 partners across 6 countries. The primary aim is to contribute to a real and lasting shift in the behaviour of European researchers to ensure that Open Science (OS) becomes the norm.
Research communities, research performing institutions, and research funders have each recognised that OS skills are increasingly essential for researchers to undertake responsible research and innovation. While there is increasing agreement around the need to improve OS skills amongst all stakeholders, the adoption of OS approaches has been quite limited to date. Indeed general awareness of OS approaches has improved among EU researchers. However, there is still a lack of practical guidance and training to help researchers learn how to open up their research within a particular domain or research environment. For this reason, FOSTER Plus places specific emphasis on creating discipline-specific guidance and is partnering with expert organisations representing the scientific areas of life science, social science and humanities.
FOSTER Plus will enhance existing materials and co-produce new training content. The resources will be discipline-specific and their practical and tangible outcomes can directly be applied into researchers' daily practices. The training activities will be addressed to all relevant stakeholders in the European Research Area, with a focus on young scientists, academic staff and policy makers. A strong train-the-trainer approach and network of open science trainers to act as ambassadors will help to reach a wide audience.
