On September 8–9, 2025, representatives of the Latvian Data Stewards Network – Viola Daniela Kiseļova (RSU), Artūrs Svarinskis (LU), Emīls Siliņš (LU), Danija Maļceva (LU) and Mihails Korčevskis (RTU) – participated in the Open Science Festival ‘25 in Vienna, Austria. The event brought together researchers, research data management specialists, data stewards, support staff and open science practitioners from Austria, Germany and other European countries, offering an extensive two-day programme with discussions, workshops, poster sessions and other interactive activities.
Several important lessons were learnt during the festival. Open science is not just about data sharing but also about trust, transparency and openness of science, and collaboration between disciplines and society. In accordance with the open science framework, the question of how to implement the requirements of funders and compliance with the FAIR principles in scientific research practice has become relevant, as well as how to support and educate researchers on examples of good practice.
The Austrian experience is a vivid example of promoting an open science culture in the scientific community by creating a unified search system for teaching materials and research data from all national scientific institutions. The doctoral support system of the University of Vienna showed how data management and mentoring services can be integrated into the study process. In turn, the experience of the University of Rijeka (Croatia) showed how students are involved in the popularisation of open science, who, using a peer-to-peer approach, develop activities and materials for their fellow students.
The introduction to the AUSSDA (Austrian Social Science Data Archive) initiative was particularly valuable, in which data stewards provide practical support to researchers in anonymising, documenting and preparing data for depositing. The festival’s panel discussion also addressed the dark side, or several contemporary challenges related to the implementation of open science initiatives – from the impact of data storage on environmental sustainability and climate to the increased workload of researchers and support staff and the opportunities and risks created by artificial intelligence in research.
The Latvian delegation actively participated in the festival programme – Viola Daniela Kiseļova presented a poster on the topic “Accelerating Open Science in Latvia: A Case Study from Rīga Stradiņš University’s Participation in a National Data Steward Network”. Danija Maļceva and Mihails Korčevskis, in turn, gave a lightning talk-type presentation “Unifying Research Data Management in Latvia: From Institutional Silos to a National Framework”, sharing their experience on the development of the data management system in Latvia.
Participation in the festival provided an opportunity to strengthen international cooperation, gain inspiration for new solutions and future directions, and confirm Latvia’s active involvement in strengthening the culture of open science.
