Tools
The ORFG has created the following tools to support funders develop and improve their resource sharing and open policies.
HoWOPENISIT? Guide to Research Funder Policies
Open policies vary from organization to organization, and openness itself falls on a spectrum of implementation and practices. The HowOpenIsIt? Guide to Research Funder Policies frames the choices funding organizations should consider in developing an open policy. Its visual layout offers a view of the spectrum of open, from fully open to fully closed.
This guide is based on SPARC’s HowOpenIsIt? Guide for Evaluating Open Access Journals.
Incentivization BluePrint
This Incentivization Blueprint provides funders with a step-by-step approach to align their incentives with open access, open data, open science, and open research. The Blueprint provides organizations with guidance for developing, implementing, and overseeing incentive structures that maximize the visibility and usability of the research they fund.
POlicy Clausebank
The Policy Clausebank provides sample language for open policies covering a range of different scholarly outputs and sharing practices. It offers examples to funders from peer organizations, and offers “plug-and-play” language to fit funder policy needs.
Projects
The following are projects supported by the ORFG.
Open & equitable model funding program
A coalition of 11 funders explored specific interventions to make both the processes of grantmaking and the resulting research outputs more transparent, inclusive, and trustworthy. The program was supported with funding from Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Moore Foundation, and Rita Allen Foundation, and was run in conjunction with the Health Research Alliance.
open scholarship seed awards
To begin addressing inequities of adopting open research practices due to systemic barriers, the ORFG developed a $100,000 seed award fund to stimulate open scholarship activities at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI) in the United States and academic institutions in countries and territories eligible to receive official development assistance.
This program stimulated open scholarship engagement within networks that have traditionally faced barriers to participation; and to test a theory of change for advancing open scholarship. The program launched in mid-2023, awarded 23 awards ranging from $1,000-$5,000, and supported projects that built awareness of and capacity in open science. Awards were made possible through the generous support of the John Templeton Foundation, Schmidt Futures, Templeton World Charity Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.