Case studies

Aurora and OpenAIRE: CONNECTing Research and SDGs

Enhancing Open Science Practices and Aligning Research with SDGs: A Collaborative Initiative between Aurora and OpenAIRE

Overview

The collaboration between Aurora and OpenAIRE aims to link research to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by utilizing OpenAIRE's Open Science services and infrastructure. A key component is the creation of an Aurora CONNECT Gateway, a centralized platform for accessing Aurora universities' research outputs. Researchers from Aurora and Athena Research Center are tackling the classification of documents according to SDG targets, while monitoring dashboards track Open Science indicators and SDG-related outcomes (Aurora Open Science Monitor and Aurora SDG Research Dashboard). The CONNECT Gateway, equipped with advanced search, filtering, and integration capabilities, enhances Aurora's research network, visibility, and Open Science practices.

Challenge & Scenario

Aurora faced several challenges in implementing its Open Science and SDGs program, including data collection and normalization across various universities, classifying research outputs based on SDGs using AI algorithms, and engaging researchers to participate in the program. Additionally, Aurora needed to integrate the SDG Research Dashboard with existing university systems, requiring technical coordination, and set up monitoring and evaluation frameworks to assess progress. Despite these hurdles, collaboration with OpenAIRE and the use of their services and expertise enabled Aurora to successfully implement their Open Science and SDG program.

Solution & Implementation

Aurora addressed the connection of research outputs to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by creating a research dashboard in collaboration with OpenAIRE. They integrated their research outputs into the OpenAIRE Graph, ensuring compliance with OpenAIRE guidelines and registering their repositories in the OpenAIRE PROVIDE service. This integration allowed Aurora's research to be discoverable through the OpenAIRE CONNECT Gateway. The developed dashboard visualizes the universities' contributions to the SDGs, providing data on publications, collaborations, policy impacts, and more, thereby showcasing Aurora's research contributions and promoting open science practices. The OpenAIRE MONITOR Dashboard complements the Aurora SDG Research Dashboard.As the discovery of the research output foster the intersectoral and international collaboration, we focused on training the Early-Career Researchers (ECRs) in using the platform.

Impact

The collaboration between Aurora and OpenAIRE strengthened the Aurora network by providing open science tools and services, increasing the visibility and outreach of research results in addressing societal challenges like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The creation of the CONNECT Gateway, a single-entry point for Aurora universities' research, ensures compliance with OpenAIRE guidelines and enhances the discoverability and accessibility of their research outputs. Additionally, the collaboration led to the development of a monitoring dashboard that tracks Open Science indicators and the impact of research outputs. Overall, this partnership has promoted Open Science practices and aligned research efforts with the SDGs, fostering a culture of openness and collaboration within the Aurora network.

Aurora is a partnership of research-intensive European universities dedicated to leveraging their academic excellence for societal impact. With a strong focus on community engagement, Aurora's vision is to influence societal change and contribute to the achievement of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals through research and education.

“It is pretty amazing that we can see all these [scholarly communications resources] with the only thing we need to do is to make our repositories compliant to OpenAIRE and add them to the CONNECT Gateway, so from our perspective it’s easy, OpenAIRE has done a fantastic job in the past years /…/ we can use these diagrams in all kinds of reports and downloads ”

Maurice Vanderfeesten, [position] @ Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Related resources

Aurora CONNECT Gateway: https://aurora.openaire.e u

Aurora – Sources and Methodology: https://aurora.openaire.eu/content

Training for Researchers in AURORA University Alliance
https://www.openaire.eu/fostering-open-science-in-the-aurora-university-alliance-through-the-openaire-services-training

OAWeek2022: Aurora and OpenAIRE: CONNECTing research and SDG: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NqLAFwxnUk

Aurora – Sustainable Development Goals: https://aurora.openaire.eu/sdgs

Aurora Universities: https://aurora-universities.eu

Aurora Open Science Monitor: https://monitor.openaire.eu/dashboard/aurora/open-science

Aurora SDG Research Dashboard: https://aurora-universities.eu/sdg-research/dashboard/

In depth description

Details

In September 2021, Aurora initiated a collaboration with OpenAIRE to enhance the integration of open science practices within its network. Both Aurora and OpenAIRE share a commitment to promoting all aspects of Open Science, leading to the identification of several collaborative lines. The overall goal of this partnership is to strengthen the Aurora network by equipping its universities and researchers with advanced Open Science tools, thereby increasing the outreach and visibility of Aurora's research results. This collaboration highlights the impact and importance of Aurora's contributions to addressing significant societal challenges, as represented by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) defined by the United Nations.

Aurora encountered various challenges in implementing its Open Science and SDGs program, encompassing data management, classification, collaboration, integration, and monitoring.

The task of collecting and normalising data from diverse universities and repositories posed significant hurdles, given the differing formats, metadata standards, and quality issues.

The need to classify research outputs according to SDGs demanded the development of an AI algorithm capable of analysing publications' abstracts and full texts to assign relevant SDG labels accurately.

Engaging researchers and stakeholders proved essential to foster participation and collaboration, necessitating efforts in awareness-raising, training provision, and incentive creation.

The establishment of monitoring and evaluation frameworks aimed to track the impact and uptake of Open Science practices and SDG-related research outputs, requires a variety of skills and expertise for the development of indicators, the set-up of monitoring dashboards, and data analysis to identify areas for improvement.

Aurora successfully navigated through those challenges with the collaboration with OpenAIRE. Both teams leveraged their expertise and services to overcome obstacles and implement the program effectively.

Step 1: Integrate scholarly metadata records to the OpenAIRE Graph

Aurora universities made their repositories compliant with the OpenAIRE Interoperability guidelines and registered them in the OpenAIRE Provide service. This allowed their research outputs to be included in the OpenAIRE Graph.

To ensure the proper representation of Aurora universities in the OpenAIRE Graph, the teams collaborated to the curation of metadata records about universities using the OpenOrgs service.

Step 2: Set up of the OpenAIRE CONNECT Gateway

An OpenAIRE CONNECT Gateway has been set up to gather all research outputs of the members of the Aurora network in one single entry point. The Aurora CONNECT Gateway was configured to gather research outputs

Available from the institutional repositories of the Aurora universities

With at least one author affiliated to one of the Aurora universities

Funded by projects carried out only by Aurora universities

Step 3: Integrating the research output of the Aurora CONNECT Gateway into the Aurora SDG Research Dashboard

The Aurora team analysed the research outputs available in the Aurora CONNECT gateway with their algorithm for SDG classification and integrated the results in the Aurora SDG Research Dashboard. The dashboard is developed to visualize the research contributions of Aurora universities to the SDGs and track their impact. The dashboard provides information on the number of publications, collaborations, policy impact, and more, related to each SDG. This solution enables Aurora to showcase their research contributions to the SDGs and promote open science practices within their network.

Step 4: The Aurora Open Science Monitor

The content of the Aurora CONNECT Gateway is also analysed with the algorithm for SDG classification by Athena Research Center. The result is integrated in the OpenAIRE Graph and used for the calculation of statistics in OpenAIRE MONITOR. The Aurora Open Science Monitor was then set up to provide Aurora with indicators about Open Science trends and impact with respect to SDGs and made discoverable through the OpenAIRE CONNECT .

Step 5: Open Science trainings to the Aurora network

The AURORA University Alliance, in partnership with OpenAIRE, advanced Open Science practices through a series of transformative training sessions aimed at European universities. These sessions, designed to enhance collaboration and transparency in scientific research, focused on key aspects of Open Science, including open data, reproducible research methods, and the effective use of OpenAIRE Services. Participants were introduced to platforms such as the OpenAIRE CONNECT Gateway, which facilitated the discovery and linking of research outputs, fostering greater collaboration within the AURORA alliance.

The training also covered essential topics like Open Access publishing, data management, and sharing, with practical demo on Zenodo for data publishing. This initiative demonstrated a commitment to empowering researchers and support staff, promoting a shift towards a more open, transparent, and equitable scientific environment across Europe. By streamlining research processes and expanding access to knowledge, AURORA and OpenAIRE successfully catalysed impactful, collaborative research across the scientific community.

Conclusion

The collaboration between Aurora and OpenAIRE has had a significant impact in several areas.

It has strengthened the Aurora network by providing Open Science tools and services to its universities and researchers. This has increased the visibility and outreach of their research results, showcasing their impact and importance in addressing societal challenges, such as the SDGs.

The collaboration has resulted in the creation of an OpenAIRE CONNECT Gateway: a single-entry point to all research results of the Aurora universities. This Gateway ensures that all repositories and CRIS systems in the network are compliant with OpenAIRE guidelines, allowing their content to be registered and made available through OpenAIRE. This enhances the discoverability and accessibility of research outputs from the Aurora network.

The collaboration has facilitated the development of monitoring dashboards for Aurora. The dashboards include open science indicators to track different aspects of open science within the research results of the Aurora network. They provide insights into the adoption of open science practices and the impact of research outputs, contributing to the overall goal of promoting open science and its alignment with the SDGs.

Overall, the collaboration between Aurora and OpenAIRE has fostered the integration of Open Science practices and SDGs within the Aurora network, amplifying the impact and reach of their research and promoting a culture of openness and collaboration.