TIER2 and OSIRIS leaders met to discuss synergies between the two Horizon projects. TIER2 Coordinator Tony Ross-Hellauer shares: “All of us in TIER2 are delighted to collaborate with OSIRIS. Not only because it makes sense to join forces and the spirit of collaboration we already have makes it great fun but also because, in pooling our range of perspectives and activities, we think both projects really stand to benefit! ” 

OSIRIS aims to facilitate a paradigm shift and reform towards increased trust & integrity in R&I by systematically gathering knowledge on the underlying drivers, testing effective evidence-based solutions, identifying incentives for reproducibility by stakeholders, and embedding reproducibility in research design. With regards to the collaboration opportunities between the two projects, Tony shares that: “TIER2 aims to boost trust, integrity and efficiency in research by tackling the causes and consequences of poor levels of reproducibility of results across different research contexts. We are especially concerned with investigating differences in the relevance, or even general applicability, of reproducibility across different kinds of research (c.f. Leonelli 2018). We feel that a better understanding of these basic conditions is essential for our later work to co-create tools and interventions that work best for our intended user communities (researchers, publishers, funders). I think our project is, therefore, a great complement to OSIRIS, with our somewhat broader focus on conditions for reproducibility across research domains, as well as in our use of methods/perspectives derived from science and technology studies, philosophy, future studies, design-thinking, computational social science and others, which complement OSIRIS’ approaches which build heavily upon methods from the behavioural and medical sciences…“Reforming research to foster Open Science and Reproducibility is a “full-stack problem”. It needs action to build tools and services, to train for new skills and build awareness, to reform bad incentives which foster questionable practices, and align policies so they support all this. In other words, there is a lot to do! Through our partnership, our two projects are able to join forces on specific activities (like building evidence and engaging stakeholders) and complement each other in our development of tools and interventions, to maximise our impact on these essential issues.”. 

OSIRIS coordinator Dr. Inge Stegman shares that “From the very beginning the OSIRIS and TIER2 projects started off with a close collaboration. We immediately saw the overlap in our projects and the strength of both projects and collaborators. The projects really complete each other. We started collaborating on practical issues, like writing reviews, but will also collaborate in public engagement, in education and will build on future projects.”

In terms of the alignment between the visions of TIER2 and OSIRIS she adds that: “The vision of OSIRIS is to develop and test Open Science interventions that aim to improve the reproducibility of science. The objective is to make reproducibility and open science interventions evidence based. Currently, there are a lot of interventions aiming to improve the reproducibility of science. Regrettably, the effectiveness of those interventions has hardly been tested. OSIRIS aims to provide an evidence base for the effects of these interventions. This perfectly aligns with the aim of TIER2, which aims to build evidence based on the extent and efficacy of existing reproductivity practices and co-create new tools to enhance reproducibility across diverse contexts. Where both projects use a diverse sample of methods from a wide range of research domains. There is a slightly different focus. OSIRIS takes a bit more of its methods from the biomedical field, and TIER2 is a bit more social science focused. That is exactly the beauty of our collaboration: we have the same aim and envision the same outcome (evidence-based interventions), by combining our methods our projects provide all the evidence needed for safe and efficient implementation of Open Science and reproducibility interventions over all domains of science…”The OSIRIS/TIER2 partnership will contribute to Open Science and Reproducibility by making evidence important. While most open science and reproducibility interventions are promising ideas, most of them haven’t been tested. Meaning that their real effect, whether it be beneficial or harmful, is unclear. If we want to make science work for society, if we want to find solutions for the challenges we face globally, and if we want to be more efficient in science, then we need to know what works to make science more reliable and trustworthy.”

The two projects are dedicated to creating evidence-based accountability and reliability in science, and fostering reform in the European and global Research & Innovation landscape. Stay tuned for more details on the collaboration between these consortiums paving the way in Open Science and Reproducibility!