Slovenia

Slovenia

Overview

European Commission

Mandated Organisation

Academic and Research Network of Slovenia (ARNES)

EOSC Steering Board representatives

Slovenia laid the foundations to implement the Open Science principles in 2015, when it became a theme in the National Strategy of Open Access to Scientific Publications and Research Data in Slovenia 2015−2020. Since then these principles have been written into law through the ZZrID (Scientific Research and Innovation Activities Act) that provides a plan for Regulation on Open Science.

Also, in the new Resolution on the Slovenian Scientific Research and Innovation Strategy 2030 (ZRISS 2030), Open Science is the central theme of Goal 6.2: Open Science for Improving the Quality, Efficiency and Responsiveness of Research. This Resolution has been adopted by the National Assembly on 23 March 2023.

Current engagement of Slovenia in EOSC

The Slovenian Open Science Community, as national structure for EOSC, has already worked to increase awareness in the country through several activities:

  • Creation of a national EOSC community including all different types of stakeholders, to discuss and share experiences on EOSC and increase EOSC competences at national level
  • Engagement of organisations into the EOSC Association
  • Organisation of public webinars/events to:
    • Inform national stakeholders about the EOSC latest development
    • Collect feedback from national players and feed them into the EOSC Governance & other EOSC activities (e.g. EOSC-related projects)
    • Discuss EOSC-related topics at national/EU level (e.g. researchers incentives and rewards, etc.)

Academic and Research Network of Slovenia (ARNES)

Slovenia’s EOSC Mandated Organisation, ARNES is the public provider of network services to research, educational and cultural organisations, and enables them to connect and establish collaborations with others, in Slovenia or abroad. The ARNES network links over 1500 Slovenian organisations and makes its services available to nearly 250,000 scientists and science-related staff.

ARNES builds, maintains and manages infrastructure for universities, institutes, research laboratories, museums, schools, databases and digital libraries. It offers the following services through its network; web and e-mail servers; network services; multimedia services; AAI; security; registry; as well as services for individuals (webmail, hosting of personal websites, etc.). ARNES cooperates with other EU national networks in projects to test, develop and introduce new Internet protocols and services. It also provides services that are not offered by commercial organisations but which are essential to the operation of the Internet in Slovenia.

ARNES cooperates with Slovenia’s Ministries of Education, Science and Sport, and of Public Administration, as well as with other institutions, on a project basis. It also plays an active role in the EC projects SAFE-SI (http://www.safe.si/) and Spletno oko (https://www.spletno-oko.si/), under the European Safer Internet action plan.

Contact e-mail address: arnes@arnes.si

Slovenian Open Science Community (Slovenska Skupnost Odprte Znanosti)

The Slovenian national structure, started in 2021, plans to bring together national stakeholders of Open Science in a comprehensive and transparent arrangement and establish a single, complementary Open Science system in Slovenia for services, tools, infrastructures and education. It will promote the dissemination, sharing and reuse of knowledge through Open Access, and help develop competences for practising Open Science via training. By pooling existing research services and data infrastructures, it will promote the sharing of resources, services and joint participation in domestic and international Open Science projects. The Community will be part ofEOSC.

SSOZ wants to include among its members organisations from all corners of the research community (Higher education and research institutions, research and e-Infrastructures, researchers, policy-makers and research funders, libraries, publishers, scientific and professional associations, community/civic science stakeholders). So far there are no plans to extend the network to businesses or other organisations from the private sector.

SSOZ’s website is currently only available in Slovenian.

Contact: info@odprtaznanost.si

National Events

Policies

  • The “Law on scientific research and innovation“(“Zakon o znanstvenoraziskovalni in inovacijski dejavnosti” or ZZrID) establishes that research activities that received at least 50% of public co-financing have to provide Open Access to all peer-reviewed scientific publications and research data. In Particular open research data must be published or otherwise made accessible in a way that enables their findability, accessibility, interoperability and reuse, in line with the FAIR principles. Scientific journals of publishers based in Slovenia and neighbouring countries (Slovenian: v zamejstvu) which contain peer-reviewed articles and are fully financed by the state must provide Open Access to their content.
  • Institutional policies: Research data created and collected for the doctoral dissertations must be published (or be otherwise accessible) according to the FAIR principles, with the possibility of opting out in the case of personal and sensitive data, protection of intellectual property, or the non-disclosure of threatened areas, groups or species. Researchers must at least add the reference to the data via freely accessible metadata for the data center catalogue to show where the research data is accessible and under what conditions.
  • The Digital Preservation Policy of the Social Science Data Archives: determines the rules, roles and responsibilities, and the system of monitoring data management in the Slovenian Social Science Data Archives, to assure permanent accessibility of archives and holdings and thus present the archive as a trustworthy data repository in the eyes of its users, data providers, and funders.

The Slovenian government has published in May 2023 the “Action plan for open science” to implement the “Resolution on the Slovenian Scientific Research and Innovation Strategy 2023“.  The action plan describes measures to fulfil goal 6.2: Open Science to improve research quality, efficiency, and responsiveness including:

  • 6.2.1: Effectively manage and finance the development of the national Open Science ecosystem and ensure  its coherence with international standards, develop  national structures and infrastructures related to Open Science, and foster their integration into  international networks and infrastructures
  • 6.2.2: Introduce modern approaches to the evaluation of scientific research in accordance with Open Science  principles (e.g. DORA -San Francisco Declaration on  Research Assessment, Leiden Manifesto for research  metrics, (European Research Area and Innovation Committee Guidelines) to increase the quality and  impact of research.
  • 6.2.3: Ensure that the results of scientific research are consistent with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible,  Interoperable, and Reusable) principles, and that full and immediate Open Access is provided (subject to  justified exceptions).
  • 6.2.4: Establish a national Open Science community to implement and monitor Open Science in Slovenia, as well as its integration into ERA and beyond.
  • 6.2.5: Promote the development of citizen science and public involvement in scientific research.
  • 6.2.6: Promote the development of national scientific publishing that will operate according to the principles of Open Science.

People

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    Marko Bonac

    Director of ARNES, EOSC-Mandated Organisation for Slovenia at the EOSC Symposium on 20-22 September 2023 in Madrid.
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    NTE Slovenia 2023

    14 November 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia
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    NTE Slovenia