Policy in Flanders and Belgium
Regional and national initiatives work towards making research data open and FAIR. This collaboration forms a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
The Flemish Open Science Board (FOSB)
The Flemish Open Science Board is the strategic steering body of the FRDN responsible for setting out the Flemish strategy on open and/or FAIR data. It constructs the strategic lines for the Flemish Open Science policy. The purpose and composition of the board was regulated in a memo to the Flemish Government on the Flemish Open Science Policy (December 20, 2019).
Flanders Research Information Space (FRIS)
The Flanders Research Information Space (FRIS)-portal is the gateway to discover publicly funded research in Flanders and is accessible to everyone. Thanks to a direct integration with the systems of the scientific institutions, FRIS presents the most recent information about researchers, research groups, publicly funded projects and publications from 2008 onwards.In 2022 the FRIS Research portal has been expanded with additional information about patents, infrastructure and datasets.
CIS-CFS Open Science
The CIS (Committee "Internationale Samenwerking") en the CFS (Committee "Federale samenwerking") are the two permanent committees of the Interministerial Conference on Science Policy (IMCWB). Both commissions provide administrative consultation on matters of interest to the Federal Government and the federated entities, at the international and Belgian level respectively. The CIS-CFS group, which is specifically dedicated to Open Science, is responsible for the promotion, interoperability, overview and reporting of Open Access to scientific research results. Belnet is the mandated member of the EOSC Association.