White Paper: Research Funding Organisations’ Policies on Open Research in Ireland by Prof Kalpana Shankar, Dr Gail Sheppard and Sara Dunny Fox

09.10.24. Centre member Prof Kalpana Shankar, in collaboration with  Dr Gail Sheppard and Sara Dunny Fox, have released a white paper on open research funder policies in Ireland in the context of university industry collaboration. The paper highlights the gap in supportive infrastructure for the implementation of open research in Ireland. The authors have outlined the following:

“Our NORF-funded project, Review of Open Research in Connected Health (ROCHE), is focusing on open research in PPRP, particularly in digital health research and development, to explore the gaps and potential opportunities for open science and university-industry partnerships. Drawing on interviews, policy analysis, and international comparators, we intend to support the development of policy and implementation of open science in PPRP have learned that the Irish research ecosystem, i.e. funders, non-departmental state bodies such as Knowledge Transfer Ireland, professional research support staff in Ireland’s public Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) spin-outs, start-ups, and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMES) partnering with the public sector, may not be aware of the opportunities presented by open research for advancing innovation. These are opportunities that many other European countries, such as Finlandi
have fully embraced. It appears that, in Ireland, it is left to the funding bodies to develop guidelines which results in a myriad of policies and a confusing landscape for universities and businesses.”

This paper and the larger project, A Review of Open Research in Health Ecosystems (ROCHE) is being funded by the National Open Research Forum (NORF) project.

Further information and access to the full paper can be found on the Public Policy website.