PATTERN at OPEN SCIENCE Fair!

From the 25th to the 27th of September 2023, PATTERN delivered a workshop and presented a poster at the OPEN SCIENCE Fair, in Madrid, Spain.

How did it go? Well, great. But let’s discover more here below…

At the OSFAIR 2023, PATTERN hosted a well-attended workshop on “Digital skills for FAIR and Responsible Open Science: Co-creating the content, structure and Pathways”, jointly with SKILLS4EOSC and the EOSC Association Data Stewardship Curricula and Career Paths Task Force.
The participants took part in group work on quality and motivation and engagement for trainings. They discussed challenges in Open and responsible science training, main lines for action, quality criteria, and engagement methods and tools. Reflecting on their discussions, they identified a number of opportunities for training in Open and responsible science.

Among the opportunities identified several aspects were highlighted, such as:

• enhancing coordination among different projects, with jointly agreed quality standards, evaluation systems, and co-creation.
• promoting networks of trainers.
• having the right communication channels to reach the target audience.
• working towards the sustainability of open-source tools.
• using research funders mandates to create acceptance.

“Participants went through a process of design thinking to reflect on their experiences and motivation and come up with solutions for the challenges they face day-to-day”, said Andrea Giraldo Sevilla, of the Learning Planet Institute (LPI), a co-organiser of the workshop.

Several challenges were highlighted by participants. These included:

• challenges that are specific to the training resources, such as finding good examples of accessible training materials, the balance between generic and domain specific training material, difficulties in adapting and reusing training materials, and interoperability of tools. 
• audience-related challenges, like knowing the audience needs, tailoring training to the intended audience, and how best to reach senior researchers.  
• incentives and rewards for training, for example how to assess microcredentials as part of a learning path, whether training should be informal or part of curricula, and conflict or disconnect with researcher evaluation systems. 

“At the workshop, our project coordinators APRE also presented PATTERN’s preliminary results on the state-of-the-art of training in Open and responsible research. And in addtion, the mapping of European level policies that are relevant for this, work which was led by ESF” said Cristina Lagido of Aarhus University.

Other consortium members present at the FAIR included OpenAire, DANS, ESF, Trinity College, IZTECH and RBI, several of whom helped to facilitate the workshop, jointly organised by LPI, Aarhus University and the University of Minho, on the PATTERN side.

What’s next for PATTERN?

In the next stages of our project, PATTERN will use the many learnings from the OSFAIR 2023 to promote better trainings for researchers at all career stages, including ways of making trainings more engaging and useful and potential synergies with other projects. We will also develop policy recommendations to facilitate implementation and uptake of training in open and responsible science. Stay in touch with us!