Responsible RDI and education

Laurea is committed to the Declaration for Open Science and Research 2025–2030. The declaration is complemented by policies and recommendations that define goals and actions to promote openness for higher education institutions. The declaration covers four areas:

• Culture for open scholarship
• Open access to scholarly publishing
• Open access to data and methods
• Open access to education 

The implementation and development of openness are monitored through a national evaluation, which gathers information on the state of openness in higher education institutions. Data is collected from sources such as Virta, the Research Information Hub (research.fi), and the Library of Open Educational Resources (aoe.fi), as well as through a national survey conducted every two years (2022, 2024, 2026).
During the 2020–2025 declaration period Laurea achieved the highest level, 5/5 in all areas of openness in the national monitoring.

The national coordination of Open Science and Research is carried out by the Federation of Finnish Learned Societies (TSV), whose coordination office and secretariat operate under the mandate of the Ministry of Education and Culture.  

Culture for open scholarship

Culture for open scholarship refers to the RDI environment and practices that support and enable openness. The national policy on the culture for open scholarship emphasizes the importance of services, incentives, responsibility, interaction, and evaluation. 

Commitments to culture for open scholarship 2025–2030

• We develop and maintain the practices and services of responsible openness in research, development and innovation as well as in education.
• We recognise societal interaction of research, company collaboration, citizen science and other participatory practices as merits in the assessment and career advancement.

Open access to publishing

Open access to publishing means free dissemination of scientific information: open access publications are available online free of charge and can be read, printed, copied and distributed without restrictions by anyone, at least for non‑commercial use. Open access does not affect authorship – the original author must always be credited -, but improves the dissemination of information and increases the impact of RDI work. Together with adherence to ethical publishing practices openness forms the basis of responsible publishing.  

The publication channels of Laurea University of Applied Sciences are open access, and they comply with Finnish code of Conduct for Research Integrity.

Commitments to open access to publishing 2025–2030

• We promote immediate open access of scholarly publications and their long-term availability in an economically sustainable way.
• We enable the use of various open access publication channels and formats, as well as multilingual scholarly publishing.
• We acknowledge the work done for promoting the quality, openness and diversity of scholarly publications in the assessment and career advancement.

Open access to data and methods

Laurea’s goal is to ensure that RDI data, methods, and infrastructure are as open as possible and as closed as necessary. Data is managed in accordance with FAIR principles and data protection legislation, while considering companies’ requirements for privacy. All members of Laurea personnel are responsible for implementing good data management practices.

Laurea's Data Policy outlines the principles and guidelines for managing data generated in research, development, and teaching.

Commitments to open access to data and methods 2025–2030

• We implement the principle that research data, methods and infrastructures should be as open as possible and as closed as necessary.
• We manage the research data and methods and the research infrastructures in a way that allows the implementation of FAIR principles.
• We recognise research data and methods as independent research outputs that are considered in the assessment and career advancement.

Open access to education 

Laurea encourages its staff and students to use, create, and publish open educational resources. Open educational resources are educational materials that are published under an open license. The resources are produced in accordance with guidelines on data protection and accessibility legislation. The production of open educational resources is supported by Laurea’s editorial board for educational resources. When ready, the educational resources are published in the National Library of Open Educational Resources (aoe.fi).

Open access to education encompasses also open learning and teaching practices, such as high‑quality MOOCs and the recognition and accreditation of prior learning. Operational models for supporting open education have been established and they are continuously developed.

Commitments for open access to education 2025–2030

• We integrate open educational practices and open educational resources into higher education.
• We acknowledge work that promotes open education in assessment and career advancement.

How to monitor Laurea’s results?

Laurea’s openness results can be monitored from the following sources:

• Educational Resources: The Library of Open Educational Resources (aoe.fi)
• Publications: Information on research in Finland (research.fi)
• Data and methods: Information on research in Finland (research.fi)
• Infrastructures: Information on research in Finland (research.fi)

More information: