RSU data steward participates in the Open Science Festival 2025 in Austria
On 8–9 September 2025, Rīga Stradiņš University (RSU) data steward Viola Daniela Kiseļova, together with other representatives of the Latvian National Data Curators Network, participated in the Open Science Festival ‘25 in Vienna, Austria. The event brought together researchers, research data management specialists, data curators, support staff and open science practitioners from Austria, Germany and other European countries, offering an extensive two-day program with discussions, workshops, poster sessions and other interactive activities.
Viola Daniela Kiseļova at the Open Science Festival '25. Photo: project archives
Several important lessons were learned during the festival. Open science is not just about data sharing, but also about trust, transparency and openness in science, 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 more relevant, as well as how to support and educate researchers on 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 popularization of open science by using a peer-to-peer approach and developing activities and materials for their fellow students.
The introduction to the AUSSDA (Austrian Social Science Data Archive) initiative was particularly valuable, in which data curators provide practical support to researchers in anonymizing, documenting and preparing data for deposit. The festival’s panel discussion also addressed the dark side, or several 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 represented RSU by presenting 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”. Additionally, Danija Maļceva (LU) and Mihails Korčevskis (RTU) gave a lightning talk presentation “Unifying Research Data Management in Latvia: From Institutional Silos to a National Framework”, sharing 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, future directions, and acknowledge Latvia’s active involvement in strengthening the culture of open science.
The Latvian delegation on the festival site in Vienna. Left to right: Mihails Korčevskis (RTU), Artūrs Svarinskis (LU), Emīls Siliņš (LU), Danija Maļceva (LU), and Viola Daniela Kiseļova (RSU). Photo: project archives
