Open Science and Educational Research? Inclusion and Exclusion at the European Open Science Cloud

This EERA session takes up current discussions about Open Science in the European Union and the targeted digital research infrastructure European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). Four years ago, the European Commission started a public consultation under the previous term “Science 2.0” about the on-going evolution of research practices enabled by digital technologies. Many interested parties from across the EU research landscape have hence been engaged in examining the potentials of Science 2.0 and the possible policy actions.

The concept of "Open Science" emerged as a main result, and its connections to the main trends in research: “a significant increase in scientific production, a new way of doing science (data-intensive science), and an increase in the number of actors and addressees of science" (EC 2015: 6). After first discussions of the consultation, Jean-Claude Burgelman (DG Research and Innovation) summarized the lessons learned as follows: “Whatever we would do at whatever level in Europe, it has to be stakeholders driven, and it has to be bottom-up” (Louët 2015). In a further process, a Commission High Level Expert Group compiled a first report and issued a recommendation on the European Open Science Cloud (2016).

Recently, the Commission has published the declaration on the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) created by an EOSC Summit, which marked the beginning of an establishment process involving more than 80 stakeholders. The declaration sketches several aspects of the EOSC, e.g. data culture, FAIR data, services, architecture, governance, funding. A research data commons is that the cloud is to be “widely inclusive of all disciplines and Member States, sustainable in the long-term” (EOSC Summit 2017: 1).

The ECER 2018 theme immediately links up to a detailed perspective on Open Science with its European Open Science Cloud in relation to inclusion and exclusion. Openness of research processes, of research data, and of research publications may lead to a decrease in exclusion and an increase in inclusion in science or scholarship at large. Therefore, research about the phenomenon education is an ideal testing ground for large scale infrastructural developments. Educational Research is a transdisciplinary field. Besides Educational Science, it encompasses a broad range of disciplines (e.g. Social Sciences, Psychology, Computational Science) with a variety of research paradigms. Research data are heterogeneous, e.g. qualitative data or testing of school children, and publication practices are diverse, e. g. journal articles, monographs, or collected editions. In Europe, the phenomenon of education also involves heterogeneous national educational systems, which need to be considered adequately in research. On the other hand, education in general, and digital education in particular, presents a challenge to Europe.

At the beginning of the session, Jean-Claude Burgelman will deliver an introductory presentation of recent developments of Open Science and the European Open Science Cloud. Afterwards, a discussion will follow with experts from Educational Research and educational research infrastructures. The EERA session welcomes anybody who is interested in research data, its openness and its infrastructural developments in the field of Educational Research.