The Steering Committee for Open Science selected 22 projects on the basis of an international jury’s conclusions in the first call for projects by the National Fund for Open Science (FNSO). Overall funding of 2,675,000 euros will be provided for infrastructures, platforms and editorial projects that contribute to the consolidation of the French open science publishing ecosystem.

The FNSO launched its first call for projects in December 2019 with open scientific publications and their ecosystem as its scope. 105 projects were submitted which included 10 in the field of research infrastructures, 39 in the field of publishing platforms and 56 in the field of editorial content. 28% of the projects submitted were in science, technology and medicine (STM), 51% in the humanities and social sciences while the remaining 21% covered all disciplines. 86% of the projects submitted were led by a public sector actor and 14% by a private sector actor.

The projects were reviewed by cross-expertise involving over 50 experts before being examined by an international selection committee chaired by Vincent Larivière, professor of information sciences at the University of Montréal, and Vinciane Pirenne-Delforge, professor at the Collège de France. The selection committee’s conclusions then formed the basis for the final decisions taken by the Steering Committee for Open Science chaired by Bernard Larrouturou, Chief Executive Officer of Research and Innovation.

The 22 selected projects

The high quality of the projects presented led the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation to make an additional funding effort of half a million euros which meant 22 projects could be selected. 5 of these concern research infrastructures listed in the national roadmap, 7 involve editorial platforms and 10 cover editorial content (download the list of selected projects). The overall funding was thus increased to 2,675,000 euros.

In particular, this funding will make it possible to make a real qualitative leap forward in the French open-access scientific publishing ecosystem’s essential infrastructures; to support journals that make the significant choice of converting to open access; to consolidate initiatives in open peer review; or finally to experiment with new publication formats linking text and data.

Analysis of the selected projects shows a relative balance between STM and HSS disciplines, a good distribution over French territory of those who lead projects and also virtuous ongoing sharing logics as most of the selected projects involve a large number of partners. The results of the call for projects show a predominance of public-sector actors among the projects submitted.

Note: 5 of the projects led by French actors involve international partners.

Note: certain projects led by public-sector actors also benefit private-sector partners.

The National Open Science Fund (FNSO)

The FNSO was created as part of the measures to apply the National Plan for Open Science announced in July 2018 by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation. The Fund is intended to support initiatives contributing to the development of open science and is financially supported by the Ministry. There are also additional contributions from the higher education, research and innovation community which have been made available thanks to savings made on subscriptions to Elsevier publications. In 2019, the FNSO will also receive funding from the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) and the Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER).

Future calls for projects

The Steering Committee for Open Science has decided to renew a previous call for projects in the fields of scientific publishing and publications and to launch a new call in 2021 dedicated to research data.

The Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation press release.