“Systematic sharing of knowledge… as early and widely as possible.” — European Commission, Open Science policy

Open Science is a movement and approach to scientific research that emphasizes transparency, accessibility, collaboration, and reproducibility. Its goal is to make scientific knowledge and processes more available to everyone – researchers, policymakers, and the public. These practices are supported by a variety of tools and approaches, from registering clinical studies to preprints of scientific articles, depositing datasets and metadata in open repositories and ensuring effective and timely communication and dissemination of results.

Why do we need Open Science?

Open science helps accelerate discovery, improve trust in science, and foster global collaboration. It is increasingly supported by governments, universities, and most funding agencies around the world now explicitly require open access publications as a minimum and strongly recommend measures towards open data access (see Plan S by cOAlition S). For researchers, open science practices must be carefully aligned with parallel activities to protect intellectual property, in cases where potential commercial value is identified.

Open Data Portal

An Open Data Portal is a secure digital gateway that enables the publication, access, and reuse of research data generated within GIMM CARE labs and beyond. It acts as a central entry point where internal datasets (from systems like Electronic Laboratory Notebook (ELN) and research repositories) are structured and made widely available, while also integrating external data from international repositories through API connectors.

For the user, the portal combines a search engine and access management. The idea is to build a tool library with applications for querying, analyzing, and visualizing data. 

It includes authentication mechanisms aligned with EOSC standards and supports both data management and publication, ensuring interoperability, proper metadata description, and adherence to open science principles to maximize data impact and reuse. Our team is working to make the portal as sustainable and open as possible, whilst respecting the needs and security requirements from more sensitive data. 

In the video below you can get a glimpse of the first version of the portal, developed as proof of concept. Here you can see the search window, which allows you to filter by type, organization, and format. The dataset description window allows the user to download the dataset directly or request access, according to data sensitivity.

We invite anyone interested in using the open data portal to send us your suggestions or feedback via care@gimm.pt