Horizon Europe open science requirements
The content of this page is subject to change. Always check the detailed information about funder policies on the funders' websites.
European Commission: Horizon Europe 2021-2027
How to comply with Horizon Europe mandate for publications - Guide for researchers
Horizon Europe requires deposition of scientific peer-reviewed publications open access. While it is not mandatory to publish (if a project intends to exploit its results), if scientific peer-reviewed publications are produced, then they must be: open access immediately at publication time under open licenses (such as Creative Commons), providing specific minimum sets of rights of reuse:
- CC BY for articles and book chapters in edited books and
- CC BY, CC BY-NC, CC BY-ND, CC BY-NC-ND or equivalent for long-text formats.
The articles should be made open in one of the following ways, following Plan S principles
- by publishing articles open access under CC BY license
- Use the Journal Checker tool to search for journals compliant with Plan S and Horizon Europe open access mandate
- by self-archiving author accepted manuscripts (AAM) immediately open access e.g. in an institutional repository (ACRIS in Aalto University) under CC BY license
- Please note that only few publishers allow CC BY license for author accepted manuscripts (AAMs)
- Use the Journal Checker tool to search for journals compliant with Plan S and Horizon Europe open access mandate
- Publishers usually offer the option of publishing the article open access (option 1) to comply with Plan S principles. Authors are always encouraged to check publishers’ Plan S compliant options before submitting their papers.
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If you are unsure of the open access policy by a certain publisher and possibilities to comply with Plan S, please contact Open Science and ACRIS team at [email protected] for guidance and help.
Open access publishing fees
- Only publication fees in full open access journals for peer-reviewed scientific publications are eligible for reimbursement as direct project costs.
- Publishing costs in hybrid journals (including transformative journals) are not reimbursed by Horizon Europe. However, Aalto's transformative open access agreements may cover these fees.
- Apart from transformative agreements, Aalto University does not have a central open access fund. If you publish in a hybrid journal which is not covered by our agreements, please make sure to contact the controller of your own department for assistance in such cases.
- Read more about open access fees
Please note
- Recommendation to use EC’s own open access publishing platform: Open Research Europe (ORE), no publishing fees
- Publications must be deposited in a trusted repository (ACRIS in Aalto University)
- Open access for non-peer reviewed publications is also recommended
Statements required in Horizon Europe publications
Any dissemination of results (including journal papers) must indicate that the project has received funding from the European Union Horizon Europe programme, include the grant number, and a mention that the publication reflects only the author’s view and that the Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
How to comply with Horizon Europe mandate for Research Data Management - Guide for researchers
Open Data Requirements
| What to publish? | Data includes raw data, to the extent technically feasible, but especially if it is crucial to enable reanalysis, reproducibility and/or data reuse. Information must be given via the repository about any research output or any other tools and instruments needed to validate the conclusions of the scientific publications. Research outputs, tools and instruments may include data, software, algorithms, protocols, models, workflows, electronic notebooks and others. Best practice: It is recommended that open access is provided to these research outputs, tools and instruments unless legitimate interests or constraints apply. |
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| Where to publish? | "Trusted” repositories, i.e. certified repositories (e.g. CoreTrustSeal, nestor Seal DIN31644, ISO16363), disciplinary or domain repositories or general-purpose repositories or institutional repositories. If required in the call conditions, the repository must be federated in the EOSC in compliance with EOSC requirements. Personal websites and databases, publisher websites, as well as cloud storage services, Academia.edu, ResearchGate etc. are not considered repositories. Further specifications in the Annotated Grant Agreement, p. 155. |
| When to publish? | Deposition of data must take place as soon as possible after data production/generation or after adequate processing and quality control have taken place and at the latest by the end of the project. This does not entail that data must be made open, but rather that it is deposited so that metadata information is available and hence information about the data is findable. In exceptional cases in which specific constraints apply (e.g. security rules), deposition can be delayed beyond the end of the project. Data underpinning a scientific publication should be deposited at the latest at the time of publication and in line with standard community practices. |
| Licensing | “As soon as possible and within the deadlines set out in the DMP”, ensure open access — via the repository — to the deposited data, under the latest available version of the Creative Commons Attribution International Public License (CC BY) or Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication (CC0) or an equivalent. Software: appropriate software licenses, such as those listed as free by the Free Software Foundation and listed as open source by the Open Source Initiative, is strongly recommended. Please, note that Open science mandatory requirements are evaluation criterion in the project proposal. |
Stages of the Data Management Process
| Proposal stage | During project | At completion of project |
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In the proposal stage, a brief outline of data management is required. Details of where to address Open Science in the Horizon Europe proposal can be found here. |
The actual data management plan is submitted within the first 6 months of the project and updated throughout the project. | In the project report the final DMP is required. |
Data Management Plan (submitted during the project)
- A Horizon Europe DMP template is provided but the use of it is a recommendation.
- In general, the template guides you to describe how you will make your research data findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR).
- If you have justified reasons not to open some parts of the data describe the reason in the DMP (see e.g. Aalto Open Science and Research policy for justifiable reasons)
- The DMP must be updated. Typically, updates are made at the same time as the periodic evaluations. The update needs to be made together with the final review if there are no scheduled reviews.
- Further Aalto guidance on Data Management Plans
| What? | How? | Mandatory in all calls/recommended |
|---|---|---|
| Early and open sharing of research | Preregistration, registered reports, preprints, etc. | Recommended |
| Research output management | Data management plan (DMP) | Mandatory |
| Measures to ensure reproducibility of research outputs | Information on outputs/tools/instruments and access to data/results for validation of publications | Mandatory |
| Open access to research outputs through deposition in trusted repositories | Open access to publications Open access to data Open access to software, models, algorithms, workflows etc. |
Mandatory for peer-reviewed publications Mandatory for research data but with exceptions (‘as open as possible…’) Recommended for other research outputs |
| Participation in open peer-review | Publishing in open peer-reviewed journals or platforms | Recommended |
| Involving all relevant knowledge actors | Involvement of citizens, civil society and end-users in co-creation of content (e.g. crowd-sourcing, etc.) | Recommended |
For more on open access and open data requirements of the EU Horizon Europe Program (2021-2027), see:
Horizon Europe Programme Guide.
- Early & Open Sharing pp. 43-44
- Reproducibility of research output pp. 43, 49-50
- Open access to research outputs pp. 50-52
- Open peer-review pp. 53-54
- Citizen, civil society and end-user engagement pp. 54-56
Horizon Europe General Model Grant Agreement (Article 17)Annotated Grant Agreement (in progress)
The European Research Council information on Open Science
Always check the up-to-date information from the funders' instructions.
What is New in Horizon Europe?
| 1. Rationale and Scope |
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| 2. Evaluation |
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| 3. Intellectual Property Rights |
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| 4. Publications |
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| 5. Research Data |
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| 6. Qualified Open Access to Research Outputs |
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| 7. Reproducibility of Research |
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| 8. Open Science and Public Emergencies |
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Open science requirements are embedded in the ERC grant agreement and depend on the Framework Programme (and in some cases, the ERC call) under which funding has been obtained. ERC open science policy is in line with Horizon Europe.
Help available
Questions on open access: [email protected]
Questions on research data: [email protected]
Further support is available from the School Teams and IT Services for Research
More information on open access publishing
Open Access Publishing
Open access ensures that scientific publications are accessible to everyone free of charge.
Open access agreements with publishers
Publish open access articles without APC fees
More information on open research data
Research Data Management (RDM) and Open Science
Properly managed research data creates competitive edge and is an important part of a high-quality research process. Here you will find links to support, services and instructions for research data management.
Data Management Plan (DMP)
A Data Management Plan (DMP) is a formal document that specifies how research data are handled during and after a research project.
