The Open Science Festival celebrated its premiere in Austria this year: On 8 and 9 September 2025, Open Science enthusiasts gathered on the campus of the University of Vienna for inspiring keynotes and expert panels, fun activities such as quizzes and a scavenger hunt, and practical workshops. Based on a successful concept from the Netherlands, the festival provided an ideal opportunity for researchers, lecturers and research support staff to exchange ideas and network with colleagues from Austria and several other European countries.
Sharing is caring – in every way
The interactive workshop "Doing Open Science: Turning Requirements into Opportunities" focused on bringing Open Science principles to life: AUSSDA communications expert Julia Geistberger, Claudia Hackl from the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Vienna and Lisa Hönegger, head of the Research Data Management team at the Vienna University Library, introduced participants to the topics of open data, open source tools, open access, open education and citizen science using a fictional research project as an example. In groups, participants collected ideas on how these principles could be best put into practice. The end result was the realisation that Open Science is not an insurmountable challenge, but rather a series of individual, feasible steps that bring concrete benefits to researchers.
For instance, sharing research data in a repository enables others to reuse it, such as students who need data for their theses. In the workshop 'Finding Suitable Research Thesis Data', Otto Bodi-Fernandez and Dimitri Prandner, AUSSDA representatives from Graz and Linz, and Monika Bargmann, Data Steward at the Vienna University Library, explained how to find and reuse suitable datasets.
The festival visitors' enthusiasm for Open Science had to be rewarded with treats. AUSSDA sponsored an ice cream van by Vanella Gelato in Vienna. The ice cream experts handed out delicious flavours to everyone who attended the festival, because sharing is caring – that goes for both research data and ice cream!
What's next?
To keep the festival momentum going, the organisers put together a follow-up event: There will be two online sessions on 13 October focusing on a more sustainable, healthier research culture and tips for overcoming challenges Open Science can bring. The best thing is: Everyone is more than welcome participate in the sessions, regardless of whether they attended the festival or not. You can find all the registration information on the festival website.
