Weeklies Archives

We'll be taking a break for a few weeks and so we leave you with just a few notes on things coming up in the fall of 2026.

• Do you know a researcher or project with exceptional research data management? Now is your opportunity to nominate them for the Dutch Data Prize hosted by RDNL. Nominations close on 30 September.
• Utrecht University continues to move forward in its digital autonomy goals, this time exploring the possibility of hosting its own email environment.
• October's national Open Science Festival is already sold out! But you can still get on the waiting list.

Wishing you a summer of cool waters, ice cream, and good vibes. We'll see you in August.

Open Science has long been aligned with Slow Science, and that makes this time of year particularly important. A moment to take stock of those pressures toward over-production, how we frame value and success, and just a few weeks to catch our breath. I wish you time to unwind and gather strength. But first, a few bits of news:

• Are you interested in helping shape national trajectories in Open Science? The NWO's Open Science NL is seeking new members for their three Advisory Panels: Citizen Science & Societal Engagement; Open Scholarly Communications; and Software, Hardware and Research Data.

• Our friends over at Tilburg University have an interesting event to keep on your calendar for the fall: Data Dilemmas, a symposium to discuss "challenges in compliance, data discovery & sharing and AI." Happening 1 October!

• Closer to home, UU's Institute for Open Societies will hold their Community Day on 17 September!

Take it easy, y'all!

No OSCU Weekly last week for the simple reason that I was scrambling to keep my family and myself safe during the extreme heatwave that hung over our region. There's something to be said here about the failures that have brought us to this moment and how we must imagine and build a more open science that helps more people in these catastrophes. I can't help but think that those Open Science ideals, which can increase our collaborative abilities, and thereby strengthen our voices and authority, can bring about a world better prepared for this moment. And when I look around at the work being done by so many wonderful colleagues across Utrecht, I find evidence to have hope.

In other news, things are slowing down as we enter the month of July. Most of our knowledge organisations take a bit of a nap until mid August, so our Weeklies will follow suit. But we'll share a bit more information in the weeks ahead.

And so here's an interesting upcoming event: on Monday, 6 July, Utrecht University will host its first Digital Autonomy Café to discuss technologies and infrastructure that keep our knowledge work off of proprietary or insecure platforms.

And finally, if you like creative forms of expression, open knowledge sharing around the notion of a Commons, and zines, our neighbors at Utrecht's Casco Art Centre have released a brilliant publication called "Ceci N’est Pas Une Zine! – Culture as a Commons."

This week, let's bring you some light reading while the temperature gets heavy. All open access, of course.

First, the The Politics of Open Infrastructures: Power, Governance, and Justice in Digital Knowledge Practices edited by Katja Mayer, Astrid Mager, Renée Ridgway recently published by Open Book Publishers.

Second, a newly released report from our friends at Library Futures: How to Publish Your Academic Paper without Publishers, Bosses, Gods, or Masters by Jessica Ferrell.

And if you dig those texts, I recommend you get involved in our OSCU Publishing initiative. We are developing some exciting open infrastructure with Julien Taquet, who recently deployed open publishing at the Louvre.

And to be published by this initiative, we're starting work on a collection of diverse perspectives, research, and provocations that illustrate a variety of understandings of Open Science. Our hope is to show how Utrecht perpetually redefines Open Science, ensuring its vitality in bringing about culture change at knowledge organisations. Have an idea for this publication? Give us a shout and get to writing!

Welcome back it's time for another OSCU Weekly, the latest in Open Science in and around Utrecht.

This week we held our final instance of the OSCU Open Meeting for the 2025-2026 academic year. A quick Open Science card game reminded us how much of a good time it is to talk about, and work toward, a more open future for higher education. We're looking forward to more of these, alongside further developments with OSCU Publishing, starting in September. But in the meantime, we'll keep you posted.

In news this week, VirtualShip, an open platform for virtual oceanographic fieldwork used in teaching at Utrecht University, is now available as an Open Educational Resource through the COSiE Edusources collection.

By the way, the deadline for participation in the Open Science Festival NL is extended through 28 June, so now is your chance to get that workshop proposal in!

OSCU Weekly will continue...

It's Friday, the 5th of June, and it's time for another edition of OSCU Weekly, your place for Open Science news in and around Utrecht.

In addition to a number of upcoming events we noted last week, there's quite an interesting interactive session happening here in Utrecht on Thursday, the 11th of June. COSiE (the Community for Open Science in Education) and FORRT (the Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training) will facilitate Please Steal This Open Science Teaching Practice. "Through short showcases, small interactive activities, and practical examples, you will discover ways to introduce Open Science into your own teaching."

Further afield, this week we saw the publication of the Leiden Declaration on Artificial Intelligence and Mathematics by a collective of scholars around the world. The declaration, notably, aligns itself with the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science and calls for mathematicians to "adhere to principles of Open Science" in bringing a critical lens to AI.

That's all for now, see you next week. Take it slow out there. It's June, after all.

It's the last Friday in May and time for another edition of OSCU Weekly, your regular information source on Open Science in and around Utrecht. Here's what iis coming up:

• Wetenschnapps XL, Utrecht University's conference on societal impact will be held on Monday, 8 June. Register at the link for more details.
• The next OSCU Open Meeting will be held on Tuesday, 9 June from 12-14hr at the USP Library. All are welcome.

At the national level, the Open Science Festival NL will be held on 14 October at Delft University of Technology. Registration and the calls for participation are now open at their website.

Elsewhere in the world, science is a little less open today as MIT announces the closure of several libraries.

But let's close out on a brighter note: yesterday Open Research Europe announced a significant expansion in eligible authors for its emerging open access platform, starting this fall.

Let's keep things open. See you next week.

Welcome back for another edition of OSCU Weekly, your regular update on Open Science matters from Utrecht to the world.

Here in Utrecht, UU's Centre for Digital Humanities announced their Research Software Summer School, which runs from the 29th of June to the 3rd of July and is currently open for registration.

In this summer school, you will learn how to create and integrate software into your research by developing the foundational programming skills needed in the digital research domain.

Spaces are limited so sign up quick!

In news for the Netherlands, registration is now open for the Open Science Festival Limburg, happening on the 11th and 12th of June. And the NWO announced funding support to for seven Open Access books.

On the international level, the DAIR announced their new Luddite Lab, and there's quite a conversation happening over arXiv's policy on AI in preprint submissions.

Stay cool out there, y'all. Things are heating up.

This week, at our monthly Open Meeting, OSCU announced the launch of OSCU.nl - our new website! Designed by Julien Taquet, the site reflects a new approach to community building and open principles.

A dynamic aspect of this approach will be found here in our new OSCU Weekly - a space for regular communications on Open Science info in and around Utrecht. For example...

On the afternoon of 26 May at the USP Library, Utrecht University will host a meeting to discuss its forthcoming Open Access policy. I recommend you join in - it's a great chance to help shape the university's OA perspective. Details on the meeting and registration are available at this link. The meeting will be held in Dutch and English.

That's all for this short week in the middle of May. Remember to keep it open.

On Tuesday, 12 May, we will hold OSCU's monthly Open Meeting at the Living Lab / Bridge of the USP Library from noon until 14hr.

Each month, OSCU invites a broad spectrum of participation and dialogue on an array of issues related to Open Science. These meetings can rotate through a variety of content types: open gatherings for community members to converse or collaborate, governance meetings to transparently convey the scaffoldings of OSCU, special topic sessions with invited speakers to share knowledge on Open Science issues or skills.

This month, we will celebrate the launch of OSCU's new website: https://OSCU.nl! We'll tell you a bit about the design and development process, and what the new changes mean for the Open Science Community Utrecht.

For the past few months, OSCU has been at work rethink its digital presence. And we've come to realise that this will also have an impact on our physical manifestation. So as the new site nears completion, I'd like to tell you a bit about what we have in store.

The website is divided into three areas for sharing information in a more open and accessible manner:

First, we have a Calendar. Here we'll present OSCU events, as well as other events that might be pertinent to OSCU, Utrecht, and Open Science more generally.

Second, you will see a list of OSCU Activities. This continues the work of our previous website in indexing and organising all of the initiatives in and around OSCU so that our community can find each other and work together more.

Third, and perhaps most distinct for our new website will be OSCU Weekly. Gone are the semi-monthly newsletters in exchange for a new Weekly communication, that will come out every Friday with links, news, and insight from OSCU. You can sign up (forthcoming) to get the Weekly in your inbox or RSS feed, or catch then directly on the site.

In the weeks to come, we'll be adding an interactive feature to ensure more of a conversation. But I'll give more details on that next time. In the meantime, stay open.