Mag. Dr. Stefan Reichmann, BA MA

Integrating (European) research infrastructure into national institutions

The contribution is based on an article (Reichmann et al., 2025) that traced the adoption of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) by Austrian research-performing institutions. Starting from the paper, the talk will sketch how Open Science has been imbued with competing meanings from its inception, which has resulted in conflicting interpretations of the goals of EOSC. In this, the article claimed that “official” EOSC narratives have moved away from the current Open Science discourse, which accounts for the hesitancy of researchers and institutions towards EOSC. To make this plausible, the presentation contextualizes Open Science within the broader context of science studies to argue that these competing narratives result in tensions which surface in moments of practical implementation. As a result, EOSC operates in a highly contested environment and, in this sense, is susceptible to contradictory interpretations. Its foundational philosophy, the FAIR Guiding Principles (Wilkinson et al., 2016), tacitly universalizes one set of practices, norms, and values as the sole reference point. Through anecdotal evidence from research support staff active in the implementation of EOSC, the article describes how the tensions embodied in the development of EOSC are perpetuated “on the ground” of research-performing institutions.

References

Reichmann, S., Prandner, D., Solís, B. S., Flicker, K., & Hasani-Mavriqi, I. (2025). Adopting EOSC on the ground – Integrating (European) Research infrastructure into national institutions. ABI Technik. doi.org/10.1515/abitech-2025-0059

Wilkinson, M. D., Dumontier, M., Aalbersberg, Ij. J., Appleton, G., Axton, M., Baak, A., Blomberg, N., Boiten, J.-W., da Silva Santos, L. B., Bourne, P. E., Bouwman, J., Brookes, A. J., Clark, T., Crosas, M., Dillo, I., Dumon, O., Edmunds, S., Evelo, C. T., Finkers, R., … Mons, B. (2016). The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. Scientific Data, 3, 160018.

Stefan Reichmann holds a Ph.D. in sociology with a focus on science studies. His research examines digital research practices and research infrastructures, and how these are changing in light of current reform movements in academia, particularly with regard to the production, communication, and evaluation of knowledge. Previously, Reichmann examined the impact of Open Science on the academic system, including the sharing and reuse of research data. His work has shown, among other things, that openness alone does not create equal opportunities; at the same time, the adoption of Open Science practices depends on the conditions and context in which researchers work.