Open Science (UA0090)

Ukrainian scientists are unable to fully unlock their scientific potential due to the lack of properly developed facilities and resources for research institutions and higher educational institutions; little extra-budgetary allocations going to research infrastructure; and, insufficient development of the electronic academic archives system. The competitiveness of scientific research, R&D, and experimental developments is reduced dramatically. Moreover, transferring scientific data obtained in research and experiments funded fully or in part from the state budget to reliable, publicly accessible permanent storage is not mandatory under standard practices and lacks regulatory requirements; there is also a lack of the relevant instruments, including permanent index assignments and archiving procedures. In light of the above, valuable scientific information remains inaccessible to the academic community and, in may cases, is lost after scientific projects are completed, which compromises trust in scientific results obtained by domestic researchers and hinders developing practices for reusing thereof, slows down scientific process, and makes the research and educational environment non-transparent. Thus, there is an urgent need to formulate a state open science policy in Ukraine, which will ensure the strengthening of openness principles, not only as regards public information in the form of open data, but also as regards scientific and educational data. A state open science policy will make it possible for scientists, educators, innovators, industrialists, and other stakeholders to obtain the greatest possible access to research infrastructures, publications, and data; and will create preconditions for ensuring equal opportunities and access for women and men in science. Approval of the National Plan for Open Science will: create regulatory and legal preconditions for formulating the state policy of open science; provide stakeholders with open access to devices, equipment, and other means for achieving scientific results; ensure processing of research data by using FAIR principles; facilitate acceleration of the circulation of scientific information; ensure access to up-to-date scientific information without discrimination (against age, speciality, residence, affiliation with certain institutes, etc.); create preconditions for more effective use of R&D results financed from the state budget (taxpayer money); make the academic and educational dimension more transparent. 14

Steps Responsible persons Time-frame Partners Performance indicator 1. Drawing up the draft national plan for open science with the involvement of scientists and civil society institution representatives, and submitting thereof to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for review Ministry of Education and Science March 2021– January 2022 National Academy of Sciences and sectoral academies of sciences (by agreement) higher education institutions (by agreement) civil society institutions (by agreement) the draft national plan for open science has been developed with the involvement of scientists and civil society institution representative; a public discussion has been held; and, the document has been submitted to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for review 2. Amending the Law of Ukraine “On Scientific and Technical Information” and the decisions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, as regards the functioning of the National Repository of Academic Texts —“— February– September 2022 —“— a draft Law approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, and acts of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine have been amended

Action Plan Review

Commitment 4: Implementing the state open science policy

Results Report

Commitment 4. Implementing the state open science policy

The commitment aimed to approve the National Open Science Plan, which would promote the openness of scientific and educational data as well as facilitate access to research, publications, and data for scientists, educators, entrepreneurs, and citizens.

In June 2021, a working group prepared a draft of the plan and presented it to the Ministry of Education and Science. The start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine delayed its approval, but the Cabinet of Ministers adopted the plan in October 2022. [24] In September 2022, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the Regulations on the National Electronic Scientific Information System, which would be a single access point for information on scientists, scientific projects, raw data, and other resources. [25] A representative of the Ministry of Education and Science mentioned limited human resources and technical capacity as challenges in implementing the plan. The ministry also seeks implementation support from international donors. [26] The working group also prepared draft amendments to the Law on Scientific and Scientific Technical Activity to cover open science concepts and definitions. The group consulted the academic community while drafting the amendments, which had not been adopted yet by June 2023. [27]

Improvements were made to the National Repository of Academic Texts, launched in 2018 during the previous OGP action plan. The repository provides open access to scientific and teaching materials, reports, textbooks, publications, monographs, and dissertations for scientific degrees. [28] As a result of the current commitment, the academic texts contained in the repository are now searchable in the databases of anti-plagiarism programs. [29] The process of integrating local repositories into the national repository is ongoing. [30] There is also a need to revise the Law on Scientific and Technical Information which regulates academic and scientific institutions in accordance with current technologies and open data policies.

A contributing factor that enabled the implementation of this commitment was Ukraine’s membership in the European Open Science Cloud as well as the open science requirements of Horizon Europe, [31] both of which became more important following Ukraine’s EU membership candidacy in June 2022. As a next step, the Ministry of Education and Science is developing a draft order for the publication of qualifying graduation theses of higher education students, dissertations, reviews of official dissertation opponents and recording files of the academic council meeting on the National Repository of Academic Texts.

The commitment has not yet shown early results in changing government practices. Once implemented, the plan will open information managed by the Ministry of Education and Science, which will be easily accessible when the National Electronic Scientific Information System is established. The publication of qualifying dissertations will allow users to check the dissertation texts with antiplagiarism programs and report fraud, potentially providing better accountability of the academic councils that assign scientific degrees.