Abstract

The practice of Open Science involves the work of many stakeholders within a university or a research performing organization (RPO). In addition to researchers, also grants offices, libraries, privacy offices as well as ethics boards, repositories, IT support, science communication, technology transfer and research valorization offices have a stake in ensuring Open Science. Universities and RPOs are also introducing new professionals and teams to cover Open Science, or aspects of it; consequently, dedicated teams of Open Science officers, data stewards, Open Science librarians, etc. are becoming widespread. Ensuring the practice of Open Science thus challenges existing competences and workflows within universities and RPOs, including those of RMAs.

But what does it mean to provide effective Open Science support to researchers? How to ensure collaboration between all key research support and service providers? How to design effective support workflows that coordinate Open Science related policies and practices of various research support and service providers without putting the onus of navigating such policies and practices on the researchers alone?

This discussion table explores these questions. To get the discussion going, we provide some use cases for participants and seek to identify together with participants what makes for good practice in Open Science service provision and what is the role of RMAs in this multistakeholder endeavor.

As such, the intended learning outcomes include:
- Recognizing Open Science support and service provision as a multistakeholder field
- Deeper understanding of the structural and cultural challenges that Open Science support and service provision may raise within universities and RPOs
- Deeper understanding of the role of RMAs in Open Science support and service provision
- Identifying best practices in Open Science support and service provision
- Bringing attention to the EARMA Open Science Thematic Group