On September 8 and 9, the University of Vienna invited Austrian and international guests to an open science exchange.

The Open Science Festival is a concept that originated in the Netherlands, where the event has been held regularly since 2021. Three years ago, TIB and Leibniz University Hannover jointly organized the first Open Science Festival in the DACH region. Others followed in Cologne, Mainz, and now Vienna.
The Open Science Festival 2025 had an international lineup, both in terms of speakers and guests, and the program was very varied, offering a wide range of opportunities for information, discussion, games, and networking. The festival opened with an entertaining and thought-provoking journey behind the scenes of science with Florian Aigner (TU Vienna).

Other topics included the importance of open science and citizen science for society and research, as well as the great opportunities offered by AI-enabled research data. However, a lively panel discussion also highlighted the downside, the dark side of open science.
The key content and results of selected sessions were captured in graphic recording by graphic designer Lana Lauren in her usual impressive style. They will soon be available, along with the other contributions, in the festival community on Zenodo.

Our contributions

Livia Beck (TU Vienna), Birgit Söser (TU Graz), and Maria Guseva (University of Vienna) had the opportunity to present the initial results of the Shared RDM survey on the use of data stewards at Austrian universities with a poster. Posters about the partner project ARI&Snet, the cross-project cluster Research Data, and the EU project OSTrails were also on display at the exhibition.

Barbara Sánchez (TU Wien) participated as a panelist in a panel discussion held in cooperation with Open Science Austria (OSA), which highlighted the strategies, challenges, and opportunities of open science policies. Past infrastructure and digitization calls were reflected upon and considerations for possible future joint initiatives were made. In the same context, job profiles such as data stewards, research managers, and infrastructure managers, as well as their distinctions, were also discussed.

Further information

• Website of the Open Science Festival 2025
• Festival materials on Zenodo

The next Open Science Festival in the German-speaking region will take place in Bamberg in September 2027.