On the 10th of October, the 2nd national event of the project “SPOZNAJ – Support for the Implementation of Open Science Principles in Slovenia” (ref. no. C3360-23-952001) took place at the Centre for Humanities of ZRS Koper. This project brings together 20 Slovenian public research organisations and the Central Technical Library of the University of Ljubljana. National and international speakers discussed the implementation of Open Science in research organisations and legal issues related to Open Access.
At the opening of the event, the speakers touched on some key elements of the discussions that followed. Prof. Dr. Rado Pišot, Director of ZRS Koper, emphasised the importance of digitisation of scientific research, which enables greater efficiency and accessibility of scientific results. Dr Boštjan Golob, Rector of the University of Nova Gorica and Vice-President of the Rectors’ Conference of the Republic of Slovenia, stressed the need to open up science. “Openness is at the heart of science and there is almost no alternative but to adopt the FAIR principles“. These principles facilitate the fair, accessible, interoperable and reusable sharing of knowledge. Dr Jerneja Jug Jerše, Head of the European Commission Representation in Slovenia, underlined the international importance of knowledge sharing. “This is the only way for scientific research activities to reach their full potential“. While opening up data, it is essential to maintain ethical principles and scientific integrity.







Dr Tomaž Boh, from the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, emphasised the role of open science in Slovenia as part of the wider European Research Area. “Open science is a relatively new phenomenon, which also raises fears“. These fears need to be properly addressed. Mojca Štruc, from the Ministry of Digital Transformation, presented the OPSI portal, which brings together 5,258 open collections from the public sector, is an example of how Slovenia is implementing open access to public sector data in practice.
On the legal basis for data openness and copyright
Mag. Aleš Veršič, a certified data steward, presented the broader legal framework affecting data opening and highlighted the importance of European legislation in this area. “Last year, according to the European Commission’s questionnaire on readiness for data openness, Slovenia was ranked 15th, while according to the OECD indicator, it was ranked 7th. This can be considered an extraordinary success.” Veršič pointed out some of the barriers organisations face when opening data, such as lack of time, fear of questions from users, and the feeling that data is too complex or of poor quality. “Data are raw materials that can be reused in new products, just like water, sun and air in energy.” Sharing and reusing it is therefore crucial.
Dr Till Kreutzer from iRights.Law presented the legal aspects of open science, focusing on copyright management and licensing of research data. “Copyright protects only works that are original, creative and created by humans. This is true regardless of how much knowledge and what skills were required to create a work”. Copyright therefore excludes facts, data and machine-generated products. “Research data is not protected, while the works derived from it can be copyrighted,” he explained. To remove copyright restrictions on access to research content, he suggests the use of open licences such as Creative Commons (CC0), which allow content to be reused freely and widely.
Examples of good practices from abroad
Dr Liz Guzman Ramirez, from Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, noted that all Dutch universities have developed strategies for open science and research data management. “Such practices improve data quality, accountability, reputation and time efficiency,” emphasising the need for a data management plan, GDPR compliance, use of secure storage solutions, legal data acquisition and adherence to FAIR principles. The success of open science policies and research data management requires “infrastructure, a good user experience for all stakeholders, an active community, and incentives”. This is also illustrated by the good practice example from Eindhoven University of Technology.
Dr Liise Lehtsalu from the Research Data Alliance emphasised the importance of involving different stakeholders in the policy-making process of research institutions with regard to open science and research data management. Stakeholders represent a wide range of groups, from researchers to librarians, computer scientists and data stewards. Examples of good practice across Europe show that “developing and implementing research data management takes time and often requires a change of culture within the organisation“. Each organisation needs a tailor-made approach.
When data openness meets security
The event concluded with a panel discussion, in which the four previous speakers joined forces to explore the complexities of reconciling research data openness with security concerns. They sought to find the boundaries between accessibility for all and elements that may raise security concerns at national and European level. They agreed that the ongoing definition of these boundaries is a political task, reflecting the current political climate. The panellists also addressed the impact of cybersecurity measures on research initiatives and considered how software management plans could influence the mitigation of potential security risks.
The public tender is co-funded by the Republic of Slovenia, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation and the European Union’s NextGenerationEU as part of the Recovery and Resilience.Plan.


