Research funding

Research wants to make an impact. It therefore needs to not only be funded but also to widely disseminate its results so that they are accessible to all interested parties.

Research funding agencies such as the external page Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) or the EU funding programme external page Horizon Europe aim to make the results of the projects they fund freely available. This is achieved by disseminating open-access publications as well as by making the research data generated available as open research data, enabling subsequent use in new projects. Accordingly, the aim is not to simply publish as many data as possible but rather to make them reusable from a technical and scientific standpoint in accordance with the FAIR Data Principles.

Guidelines

Below we provide the most important information on the guidelines for open-access publications and open research data:

• Open science at ETH Zurich
• Swiss National Science Foundation
• European Commission
• Summary: Standards and guidelines
• Other research funding agencies: external page SHERPA/Juliet database

Data management

The basis for sharing and re-use of research data must be laid early on in a research project. The SNSF and Horizon Europe therefore require a data management plan (DMP) for approved research projects. We provide you with step-by-step instructions for creating your DMP in accordance with the requirements of the SNSF and will be happy to answer any questions you may have. On request, we will review your DMP for comprehensibility and compliance with the requirements of the SNSF  (DMP review).

Publishing open access

Both the SNSF and Horizon Europe require open-access publication of the research results of grantees and provide funding for journal and book contributions.

You also fulfil the open access requirements of your funding body in both SNSF-funded and EU-funded projects with free self-archiving in the Research Collection which has been adopted in July 2021 and which can be viewed via this external page link.

Open Research Data Agreement SERI

In 2020, the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), swissuniversities, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), ETH Zurich and EPFL entered into an agreement to establish a national Open Research Data (ORD) strategy which has been adopted in July 2021 and which can be viewed via this external page link.