Year of Open

“The world is facing challenges that our university of technology alone cannot meet.” With these words, Rector Magnificus Karel Luyben announced the TU Delft Open Science programme at the Dies Natalis 2016. Now, in 2017, the year that the Open Education Consortium has declared ‘The Year of Open’, we are taking another step forward. The aim is to raise awareness among scientists, lecturers, administrators, and students about the importance of open science.

In 2016, the focus on open science – that is, making scientific knowledge accessible online to all levels of society free of charge – led to the formulation of the open access policy and the creation of a data framework policy (in other words, policy for research data management). Events like the Open Education Week, the Open Access Week, and the launch of the open science course, helped the ideas behind open science to become more firmly established and integrated.

This year, in 2017, there will be another full open science programme that you too can take part in. Examples include the Open Education Week in March, the launch of the open science course in June, the ten-year anniversary of OpenCourseWare, and the Open Access Week in October.

So keep your eyes and ears open and regularly check the website for all the great things that will be happening as part of The Year of Open.