TU Delft Year of Open
“The world is facing challenges that our university of technology alone cannot meet.” With these words, Rector Magnificus Karel Luyben announced the TU Delft Open Science programme at the Dies Natalis 2016. Now, in 2017, the year that the Open Education Consortium has declared ‘The Year of Open’, we are taking another step forward. The aim is to raise awareness among scientists, lecturers, administrators, and students about the importance of open science.
In 2016, the focus on open science – that is, making scientific knowledge accessible online to all levels of society free of charge – led to the formulation of the open access policy and the creation of a data framework policy (in other words, policy for research data management). Events like the Open Education Week, the Open Access Week, and the launch of the open science course, helped the ideas behind open science to become more firmly established and integrated.
This year, there will be another full open science programme that you too can take part in. Examples include the Open Education Week in March, the launch of the open science course in June, the ten-year anniversary of OpenCourseWare, and the Open Access Week in October.
So keep your eyes and ears open and regularly check the website for all the great things that will be happening as part of The Year of Open.
A global perspective
The Year of Open is a global focus on open processes, systems, and tools, created through collaborative approaches, that enhance our education, businesses, governments, and organisations, organised by the Open Education Consortium. At its core, open is a mindset about the way we should meet collective needs and address challenges.
Communities around the world are bringing open practices to many different fields, such as open source software, open government, open data, and of course open education. Open represents freedom, transparency, equity and participation. When something is openly created and released, the intent is for others to use it, contribute to its development and make it better for everyone, whether that’s adding more features or information, or finding errors and fixing them (source). Learn more about the global Year of Open