Navigating Political and Practical Barriers to Open Science in Europe and Switzerland

Many stakeholders in science policy have demonstrated a strong commitment to open science over the past decade. However, this commitment contrasts with the reality, where a comprehensive and effective open science framework is still lacking. This talk focuses on political and practical challenges faced by open science in Europe, and how they are (not) met in Switzerland. While the benefits of open science are widely acknowledged, implementation is hampered by varying national policies, coordination gaps, and limited integration of open science into research assessments. Realizing open science and open data requires a coherent and efficient interplay of platforms, services, standards, and policies. Increasingly, discussions also highlight concerns over data protection and national interests, which may limit openness and require striking a balance between openness and limiting access. Furthermore, disparities in funding and resources across institutions lead to uneven adoption of open science. Scientific developments are often based on bottom-up initiatives and mechanisms to steer such bottom-up prioritization and funding are well developed in many countries and at the European level. For putting a conclusive open science framework in place, a bottom-up approach is not sufficient, top-down steering is also required. However, such top-down steering mechanisms and even more harmonizing such steering with allowing for community driven initiatives are even less established.