OScaR RA: Finnish national reference architecture on open science and research

Abstract

Finland has decided to implement the national open science and research (OScaR) declaration, policies, and recommendations by using the enterprise architecture (EA) method. The OScaR policies drive the Open science and research field in Finland. Succeeded implementation of these policies is a critical success factor in the Open science and research field. The EA method is a tried, tested, and recognized tool for gaining digital transformation because of its important strategic and operational role in public and private sector organizations and service ecosystems. With the EA tool, OScaR policies and objectives can be described and visualized as strategy, business, information, and application architectures.EA is a holistic tool for understanding and describing the target area in different abstract layers, views, and viewpoints. It aims to serve and provide beneficial information to all stakeholders, which makes it challenging to manage. For this reason, the chief architect of the project has to be very careful with risk management and into the project have to allocate enough resources to gain an appropriate level of maturity in communication and collaboration capabilities.EA and EA problems have been studied a lot. However, in the field of open science and research, there are hardly any literature on it and no comparable EA projects in the EU. Thus the OScaR project and its deliverables could be a driver to start a discussion on the need for shared open science and research reference architecture among higher education institutions in the EU.