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Short abstract:

This study examines the impact of Funding Agencies on open science, focusing on their policies in US and Europe. It aims to analyze the diversity of these policies, identify patterns, and define key approaches towards promoting Open Access and Data Sharing in scientific research.

Long abstract:

One common path to advance science and innovation is through research funding, mostly via grants. Public and private funding agencies (FAs) fund basic and applied research projects to incentivize research and innovation. Studies estimate that about 35% of all research is conducted with financial support from FAs, which highlights the importance of understanding the role that FAs play in shaping the course of science and innovation. The research aims at expanding our comprehension of FAs’ impact on open science.

Our research focuses on one prominent player in the scientific and innovation ecosystem—FAs. To promote open science, some funding agencies have established policies to advance Open Access (OA) and Data Sharing (DS). As part of these policies, FAs encourage or require researchers who receive funds (grantees) to publish articles as OA articles and to publicly share research materials in connection with funded projects.

Considering the relatively high portion of funded research and innovation, FAs’ policies could serve as an important policy tool in fostering OS. To evaluate the impact of FA's policies, however, there is a need to study such policies more thoroughly. A preliminary examination shows great heterogeneity in extant FAs' policies. A more in-depth inquiry reveals patterns in FAs’ open science policies and emphasizes nuances between them. Such a study could serve the FAs themselves, as they adopt new policies and fine-tuning old ones, as well as policy makers who wish to promote open science norms and practices.

The main objective of this project is thus to conduct a comprehensive, multinational analysis of FAs’ policies (with a focus on American and European ones) regarding open science, characterize profiles of such policies, and define the main archetypes of existing approaches toward open science amid FAs.