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Second National Plan for Open Science: INRAE to manage the Recherche Data Gouv national research-data platform
On 6 July 2021 at INRAE headquarters in Paris, France’s Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Frédérique Vidal, launched the country’s Second National Plan for Open Science, which will run through 2024. The Plan seeks to make open science practices more widespread in France, and is part of a wider European Union goal of promoting open science. The Plan will also triple open science funding, bringing it to €15 million per year. To facilitate the dissemination and sharing of research data produced in France, a national research-data platform, Recherche Data Gouv, will be created. The platform will be managed by INRAE.
Published on 07 July 2021
Making 100% of publications open access by 2030
The First National Plan for Open Science, which ran from 2018 to 2021, gave France a coherent and dynamic open science policy. It allowed for considerable progress to be made in this area: open access scientific publications in France increased from 41% in 2017 to 56% in 2019.
The second plan, running for 2021 to 2024, outlines renewed commitment to making science more effective, more transparent and more accessible to citizens, businesses and organisations.
The Plan is part of France’s ambitious aims in this area that began in 2016 with the passing of the Digital Republic Act and were reaffirmed by the Research Planning Act in 2020, which added open science to all research missions and set the goal of making 100% of publications open access by 2030.
Creating a national research-data platform, Recherche Data Gouv
Data are the raw materials of the scientific process. They should be shared to nourish discussions among researchers. Preserving, opening and sharing research data has never been more fundamental.
To promote the opening and dissemination of research data produced in France, a national research-data platform, Recherche Data Gouv, will be created.
Workshops will be held across France to support researchers in adopting open data practices.
A national policy on data, algorithms and code, spearheaded by the prime minister
The Plan also draws on France’s national policy on data, algorithms and code, which has been spearheaded by the prime minister. The policy seeks to make it easier for researchers to access public data and will publish a forthcoming Charter to commit the government to processing research data requests in a more timely manner.
Promoting open access in publications
The Plan will speed up and intensify the process to make publications open access. Measures to promote open access that are already underway in research funding agencies, such as the French National Research Agency, will also be strengthened. The aim is to improve visibility for research findings across all fields of study, to democratise access to knowledge and to promote the dissemination of French research around the world.
The Plan will also encourage the translation of publications to foster the circulation of scientific knowledge, making scientific developments more accessible to all people and disseminating research findings to a larger international audience.
Tripling the budget for open science
Drawing on France’s National Fund for Open Science and the Investments for the Future (PIA) programme, the Plan calls for a tripling of the budget for open science from €5 million to €15 million per year. The increase will, notably, fund the Recherche Data Gouv platform.
An international commitment
The Plan is part of a European Union effort for each member state to develop a national plan for open science. The Plan is also an important part of the French government’s efforts in favour of public-sector transparency through the Open Government Partnership (OGP) that brings together more than 70 countries around the world.
Watch the launch event (in French)
Read the Second National Plan for Open Science [in French]