18. Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences – developing open science practices

The purpose of this presentation is to describe the current state of openness in Finnish universities of applied sciences and the ongoing work to develop open science policies and practices.

Research, development and innovation (RDI) is one of the mandated tasks of universities of applied sciences (UAS) in Finland. RDI activities are practice oriented, based on needs of working life and focused on problem solving. They typically take place in close cooperation with the customers generating new knowledge, competence, products and services. Strong focus on regional development also needs to be mentioned.

UASs are committed to targets of open science through the project called ”Enhancing openness in the user driven innovation ecosystem of universities” (Avoimuuden lisääminen korkeakoulujen käyttäjälähtöisessä innovaatioekosysteemissä”). The aim of the project is to develop and implement such policies and practices which will improve the openness of RDI projects, data and publications. It also tries to figure out new ways to disseminate the results of the RDI projects.

In order to develop open policy and processes it has been necessary to collect information about the current state of the openness. This poster will present the results of inquiries carried out in the autumn 2015 and in the spring 2016.

The poster will give information about the following issues concerning the state of the openness in Finnish UASs:

• the state of the openness in strategy and policy level
• the competence of personnel in the strategic and practical implementation of openness (researchers, RDI administration, projects, libraries and information management)
• the type and openness of RDI environments and infrastructures
• the openness of research data / data produced in projects
• the openness of publications

The open access movement in UASs began already in 2007. As a result, the open repository Theseus was launched in 2009 and the open access statement was given in the same year by Arene, the Rectors’ Conference of Finnish UAS.

At the moment Theseus is the biggest open repository in Finland. It is administered by AMKIT Consortium which coordinates cooperation among the UAS libraries. In the future Theseus will be developed to serve better as a repository of self-archiving and parallel publishing.

UASs have a significant role in the Finnish innovation ecosystem. It is extremely important to ensure that the know-how and the knowledge is effectively shared and widely accessible. There is a lot of work to do and the libraries of UASs are acknowledged partners in that work.

The Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland promotes open science through the Open Science and Research Initiative (ATT). The objective is for Finland to become one of the leading countries in the openness of science and research by the year 2017.