At this year’s edition of Digital Infrastructures for Research (DI4R), RDA Europe, OpenAIRE, EOSC-hub, GÉANT and PRACE organised a session on “Building better collaborative national networks” aimed at discussing best practices and challenges of building national networks.

After a short introduction from representatives of each organisation, four lightning talks were given to highlight existing collaborative activities in Finland, Hungary, Portugal and Switzerland. Following this, participants split up into four groups based on their geographical provenance. The discussion led to an exchange of ideas and information around several topics, such as the need to improve collaboration between different networks at the national level (e.g. libraries and research infrastructures) and the urgency for coordinated training activities that can help all stakeholders fully exploit the benefits derived from a better understanding and knowledge of Open Science policies and Research Infrastructures (RIs). Participants also discussed the need for a better circulation of skills and expertise among European countries.

North, East, West & South: National coordinators of main EU #Research infrastructures & networks discussing how to work together and align on a range of activities. @DI4R_eu session with @OpenAIRE_eu @EOSC_eu @GEANTnews @PRACE_RI and @RDA_Europe #EOSC https://t.co/i4RvmcbOdN pic.twitter.com/Xi7TnWukjY

— RDA Europe (@RDA_Europe) October 11, 2018

Recommendations for collaboration included identifying commonalities and overlaps between RIs, sharing training resources and expertise, gathering and sharing success stories, using liaisons or ambassadors who understand local issues, and aiming for cultural change towards Open Science at all levels, especially managerial. More open minds will make it easier for Open Science to take root.

the stronger RDA the better for a bottom up organised EOSC indeed https://t.co/6FYEUtifFX

— jc burgelman (@BurgelmanJean) October 11, 2018

To support the DI4R session, a tool was launched to provide an overview of national contact points associated with Open Science initiatives in Europe. Explore an interactive map of European Open Science Networks (beta) at https://subugoe.shinyapps.io/open-science-networks/

RDA Europe will offer another networking opportunity at ICT2018 in a session entitled “Embedding the RDA outputs via European national nodes”. Join us in Vienna to continue the discussion!

Daniel Bangert and Ilaria Fava, Göttingen State and University Library