Knowledge Exchange news

Welcome to the first Knowledge Exchange (KE) newsletter of 2018!

The purpose of Knowledge Exchange is to exchange knowledge, build expert networks and cooperate between partners, with special a focus on Open Access and Open Scholarship. KE has an open eye for emerging opportunities to enhance and support an open higher education and research infrastructure.

Moving from ambition to reality: An account of the Knowledge Exchange workshop on Open Scholarship, Paris 2017

In September 2017, we brought together key experts to define steps forward to make Open Scholarship work, as well as to validate and refine the KE Open Scholarship framework as a useful tool to better understand and address the complexity.

The workshop report presents and reflects on the key points and suggested actions that Knowledge Exchange could take forward engaging partners, universities, funders and other research bodies, nationally and internationally.

As a result, working groups with experts from all six KE member countries have started work on two topics; 'The Economy of Open Scholarship' and 'Open Scholarship & Research Evaluation'. In both cases the approach will be based on building knowledge and collecting evidence. The first results of this work are expected after summer.

Find out more

Further Knowledge Exchange work on open access monographs

In October 2017, we published a landscape study on open access monographs in eight European countries. This ground breaking research identified commonalities and differences across countries, areas of good practice, and important gaps in knowledge and information which may need to be filled before OA for monographs can progress. We are continuing our work in this very important area, and have produced a short summary of the findings of the report as well as launching a survey, which will help to inform our next steps.

Summary of the landscape study on open access & monographs

As a service to our audience we’ve produced a summary of the outcomes resulting from the extensive work we’ve done on Open Access books. The summary highlights the state of affairs with regard to policies, funding and publishing OA monographs in eight European countries.

In fifteen pages, the context of OA monographs and direction of travel are presented, as well as characteristics of policies and approaches in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, France, United Kingdom, Denmark, Finland and Norway. The summary lists the 14 key themes that characterize the initiatives that explore opportunities to better support open access for monographs.

Read the 'Summary of the landscape study on open access (OA) and monographs', the full report 'A landscape study on Open Access and Monographs' and access more information this work on the KE website.

Knowledge Exchange survey on open access monographs

In order to help us inform our future work in this area, we are conducting a survey to help us identify the next steps that we should consider, to continue to support progress in OA for monographs.

We would appreciate your help to continue our work on this important topic by completing the survey. We are eager to hear from anyone with an interest in open access monographs, no matter what stage of development has been reached in your country or sector. The survey should only take 10-15 minutes of your time and will close on 11 May 2018.

You can access the survey here..

The survey results will also help us to shape a webinar to be held in June and a workshop planned for autumn 2018. These events will also help to identify and refine key priorities and activities, in order to further support the development of open access for monographs.

OASPA and Knowledge Exchange Webinar: New Developments in Open Access Monographs

On the 14th December, Knowledge Exchange and OASPA co-hosted the webinar 'New Developments in Open Access Monographs', to present the latest findings on the development of OA monographs. The webinar featured three recent studies, including our our own 'Landscape study on Open Access and Monographs', which was presented by Eelco Ferwerda. The webinar also featured presentations by Knowledge Unlatched and Springer Nature.

You can read more about the webinar on the OASPA website, listen back to the discussion or find out more about our work on OA Monographs.

Our Latest Work

Training Materials for Research Data Management

We’re pleased to announce that the training resources which were collected as part of the Knowledge Exchange activity on Training and Skills for Research Data Management, have now been successfully transferred to the FOSTER portal, the EC funded e-learning platform that brings together training resources for those working in Open Science. You can access the materials here.

The KE work included a survey to provide an overview of the RDM training landscape in the KE partner countries and a workshop to discuss the outcomes of the survey and to compare European approaches to training in Research data management. The work also resulted in a list of recommendations for a Repository for Training materials on Research Data Management and we’re pleased that the training materials which were developed in various European countries and collected as part of the KE survey are now sustained in the FOSTER portal. With this, KE has completed its work in the area of Training and Skills for Research Data Management.

The training resources, the workshop report and the recommendations for a Repository for Training materials are also available on the KE website.

The Evolving Landscape of Federated Research Data Infrastructures

The report explores the nature and consequences of research data infrastructures being more and more federated. Questions are addressed such as ‘Which are the main drivers for federating RD infrastructures and services? What are the expected benefits? What are the consequences for research and researchers? And many more. Analysis of interviews with sixteen federated research data infrastructures resulted in a rich picture and nine conclusions on current ‘federated-ness’ of infrastructures.

The work has been presented as a poster at the DI4R 2017 conference in Brussels and the IDCC 2018 conference in Barcelona (where the poster won the second prize), and was featured at the RDA summit, Berlin, in March 2018.

Find out more

Other news

Continuation of Knowledge Exchange after 2018

At the end of 2018, the current Collaboration Agreement between the partners to work together in Knowledge Exchange will end. A decision on continuation is due before summer 2018 and will be informed by an evaluation report currently being worked on, which will also serve to form the basis of our future collaboration agreement. We hope to inform you soon about decisions on future developments.

Changes to KE staff

In December 2017 Helle Bernskov (DEFF) and Matthias Katerbow (DFG) joined the KE Steering Group. Juliane Kant (DFG) joined the KE partner representatives group (KEG) in January 2018.

Thank you & best wishes!

On behalf of the Knowledge Exchange team,

Bas Cordewener, Knowledge Exchange Coordinator

Feedback or comments on this newsletter? You can contact us at office@knowledge-exchange.info or visit our website