Open science promotes modern ways of sharing research data and wishes to ensure inclusive access to research results; principles BME fully agrees with.

BME too joined the position paper on Open Science issued by the National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) and received a certificate of participation handed over by István Szabó, NKFIH’s vice president to Tibor Czigány, BME’s rector and András Pálfalvi BME’s vice-chancellor. NKFIH published its position paper on Open Science in October 2021.

“It is a little-known fact that BME is a leading journal publisher in Hungary and the largest of the country’s 64 higher education institutions. We are proud that the eight scientific journals we publish are all open access. We are not only committed to disseminating our publications where open access is available but also to ensuring high visibility to the authors publishing in our journals,” said Tibor Czigány, BME’s rector.

“We want to promote the principle of open science in higher education,” stressed István Szabó at the meeting adding that another important factor of the initiative is that BME as a leading Hungarian technology university supports open access not only to publications but also to research data. He also emphasized that the objectives of this initiative include the dissemination of the results of science and innovation among the general public and the promotion of Citizen Science, for which there are many good examples at BME as well.

The senior representatives of BME and NKFIH also agreed that the active cooperation between the two organisations should continue in the future too. An example for this is the Competence Fair  of BME FIEK (Center for Industry-University Cooperation) where hundreds of foreign professionals were informed by the contact persons of the NKFIH Horizon Europe on innovation collaboration opportunities to work together with BME’s researchers.

Representatives of BME at the consultation at BME regarding the joining of the position paper on Open Science included Anikó Ézsiás, deputy director-general of BME OMIKK, Anikó Csákány, head of the BME Science and Innovation Directorate and Attila Joó, director of BME FIEK.

Following the meeting, István Szabó and BME’s rector Tibor Czigány visited the exhibition opened on the occasion of BME’s 240th anniversary at the BME Visitor Center. (Editor note: bme.hu reported on the opening of the BME Visitor Center in a previous article)

Open Science is a new approach to the scientific process using modern information technologies focusing on disseminating and allowing access to knowledge (results/data/methods) relying on digital platforms. Its fundamental goals are the increase of the social and economic impacts of science, “democratisation” of access and extensive public availability of the results.  Open Science allows all members of the scientific community to adopt this open approach, emphasizing cooperation in addition to competition thus improving the civil society’s trust in science.

To this end, BME wants to define and operate its own scientific processes in harmony with the principles of open science. Accordingly, its goals target areas that promote the free dissemination of scientific knowledge based on the following pillars:

• improvement of digital infrastructure related to open science,
• Open Access publication strategy,
• promotion of access to knowledge not subject to protection by law,
• accreditation and regulation of the use of BME’s repositories,
• use of data in harmony with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) principle,
• promotion of citizen science, involvement of citizens in research projects.

The integration of the practices of open science in research is also crucial for European applications. Information and regular updates about national and international best practices in, related news and events of Open Science are available through BME’s Horizon Hot Topics webinar series and the new Open Science MS Teams newsfeed.

Rector’s Cabinet Communications Team – bme.hu editorial office

Photo sources: B. Geberle