One of the main pillars of the Dutch recognition and rewards program is to stimulate open science. But what does open science mean? Back in 2019, when the program started, open science was still an umbrella term covering many concepts from open access publishing to open source data and software, scientometrics, or citizen science.

The UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science was the first internationally accepted standard that provided an agreed definition, as well as a set of shared values and guiding principles for open science. The introduction to this recommendation reads: “Open science is a set of principles and practices that aim to make scientific research from all fields accessible to everyone for the benefits of scientists and society as a whole.” This Recommendation was adopted in 2021 by 193 countries, and so set a common standard for what it means to do open science.

I was very fortunate to get the chance of recording this interview with Dr. Ana Persic during her visit to the Netherlands for presenting a keynote talk for the national Open Science Festival. She told me how they could reach consensus on a coherent internationally accepted recommendation on such a broad topic, and how she thinks open science can help societies to tackle complex social, environmental, and economic challenges and to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.

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