University of Oulu is one of the national leaders in open science

The Ministry of Education and Culture previously assessed the maturity level of openness in higher education institutions in 2015, 2016 and 2019. At that time, the assessment was based on the publicly available policies and guidelines of higher education institutions. Since 2020, the monitoring of openness and the definition of monitoring indicators have been coordinated by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV).

In 2022, the assessment of the maturity level of openness was carried out as the current AVOTT monitoring. Existing comparable data collected on the national research.fi portal was used as monitoring material. Based on the new indicators and survey, the profiles of openness and the level of open science and research were defined for the organisations.

The current monitoring focuses on four areas of openness: culture of open scholarship, publications, research data and infrastructures, and openness of education. In addition to quantitative indicators, data are collected from guiding documents related to different areas and, more comprehensively, from support services offered to teaching and research staff.

"At the University of Oulu, the promotion of open and responsible science is a continuous activity related to the university's core tasks, i.e. research and education, and related processes," says Vice Rector for Research Taina Pihlajaniemi.

"AVOTT monitoring serves as a good basis for evaluating the university's open and responsible science and identifying areas for development. During 2025, we will focus especially on promoting the openness of education, citizen science and the reform of the researcher assessment," Pihlajaniemi continues.

More information about monitoring: avointiede.fi and University of Oulu results: research.fi