After the first National policy for Open Access in Cyprus, approved by the Council of ministers of the Republic of Cyprus on the 25th of February 2016, the time has come for a revision in order to follow the rapidly change research ecosystem and fulfill all the requirements of the new Open Science era.
Thus, after a long period of discussions and the involvement of all the relevant stakeholders, the new “National Policy of the Republic of Cyprus for Open Science Practices” was approved by the Council of Ministers on the 27th of May 2022.
Under the umbrella and excellent coordination of the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy the ad – hoc National Open Science Committee (NOSCI) worked closely to formulate a draft that was provided for public consultation with the local research stakeholders. It is important to be noted that almost all the members of the committee share and believe to the Open Science vision and were committed to work towards this direction.
The document approved, is now addressing a lot of Open Science aspects and is expected to set Cyprus in the Open Science practices map.
At a glance, the policy focuses on Open Access to scientific publications, Open/FAIR Research Data under the principle of “as open as possible, as closed as necessary”, the use of infrastructures, tools and services with Open Access terms and encouragement of adoption of related Open Science practices, actions on awareness-raising, skills, training and support.
Its implementation is expected to strengthen the effort for dissemination and utilization of the produced research outputs of the country, aligning the national efforts with the relevant European principles and policies.
NI4OS-Europe Cyprus team and OPENAIRE Cyprus NOAD, were highly involved to the policy preparation, and undoubtedly will continue to support all the local efforts to the implementation of the policy and the establishment of Open Science as the new research norm.