Open science is a legal obligation under Horizon Europe. The European Research Executive Agency (REA) has prepared an information package outlining open science requirements for the beneficiaries of Horizon Europe projects.
These include the following requirements for scientific publications:
Peer-reviewed publications must be open access by depositing the final version or peer-reviewed manuscripts in a trusted repository. For journal articles, choose a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) or equivalent open license. For publishing long-texts, Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial/Non-Derivatives licenses are also allowed. In addition, one should deposit in a trusted repository the research outputs, tools, or instruments necessary to validate the publications’ conclusions.
Metadata should be in line with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable data) principles. Metadata should be machine-actionable. It should also include Horizon Europe or Euratom funding, Grant Project Name Acronym and number and licensing terms. Additionally, metadata must be open access under the Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0) or equivalent, ensuring its reusability.
The Horizon Europe Model Grant Agreement requires beneficiaries to ensure that data and other digital objects, particularly data and publications, have rich underlying metadata that explicitly describes information about rights and licensing. Recommendations are in place for other digital outcomes beyond publications and data