Imagine a world where researchers everywhere, especially those underrepresented, under-served or with fewer resources, have the opportunities and support system to transform their brilliant ideas into a tangible impact. That’s the shared goal we at OLS have!
After five fantastic years of building OLS from the ground up, thanks to the incredible collaboration from our community, we are thrilled to announce our strategic direction for the next five years (2025-2030): “Seeds to Systems.”
This theme, alongside our values, signifies our commitment to solidifying a systems approach in our work, building on a strong foundation, where we can continue to advance our vision for open science capacity building and diversifying leadership in research worldwide.
Part of this work is supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, announced in a previous post. The full proposal can be read on Zenodo (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15729807).
The team currently involved in strategic planning and development of our strategy are Malvika Sharan, Yo Yehudi, Patricia Herterich, Irene Ramos, Riva Quiroga and Bethan Iley. Alongside them, other OLS team members will be supporting the realisation of this strategy.
Read the details below and reach out to them for any questions, ideas or interest in collaboration (email: team@we-are-ols.org).
Our Mission Areas: Three Pillars
Over the past few years, we have formalised our efforts into three interconnected mission areas, which we call OLS’s Pillars: Training and Mentoring, Open Research, and Open Incubator Programme. Each pillar is designed to strengthen and complement the others, nurturing researchers to take their ideas to sustainable projects.
Training and Mentoring
Since launching in 2020, OLS has become a recognised and reliable partner in open science training and mentoring, with a strong emphasis on involving our global community in both shaping and co-delivering our programs.
- Open Seeds, our flagship program, has successfully run nine times, and an additional context-specific cohort of Open Neuro Seeds, tailored for neuroscience researchers by our Senior Resident Fellow, Sara Villa.
- Custom training, like for mentoring and Ally Skills, or other open science training like Nebula, funded by NASA, which has provided two cohorts of Open Science 101 training and supported Open Seeds fellows in engaging with this initiative.
These structured programs remain crucial for onboarding researchers into open science, and we have also been offering customised training and mentorship support for various organisations. We will continue to strengthen this service area, aiming to generate revenue, providing a sustainable funding stream for Open Seeds and Nebula, which currently rely on grants and sponsorships.
What’s Next? Under “Seeds to Systems,” we are developing advanced training for researchers and open science practitioners with projects ready to transition to the next stage. This program will equip them with the skills and strategies needed to design compelling project proposals, secure funding, and acquire resources to sustain their work using open-source/science solutions. A new Seeds to Systems Curriculum will be designed to directly leverage learnings and collaborations from Open Seeds.
This mission will be developed in alignment with the Open Research and Open Incubator mission areas, providing critical resources and a progression path for researchers. More information on this will be shared later in the year.
Open Research
Since 2022, OLS has been actively involved in open science research. With a purpose to ground our work in evidence, we have published reports and papers under research projects, including:
- Impact of open science training and mentoring, a qualitative study funded by the Wellcome Trust Open Research Fund (2022-2024).
- Widening participation in open science, a policy engagement project funded under the Turing Institute’s Skills Policy Award.
We have also co-written a meta-research paper with community members, analysing quantitative data from eight cohorts of Open Seeds, providing valuable insights into our program’s effectiveness.
What’s Next? Research will be fundamental to “Seeds to Systems,” ensuring our training and operations are rooted in evidence and best practices. Currently, two key research projects have been scoped:
- Leverage points for community and project sustainability to understand the challenges and needs of researchers, and identify key learning modules, the “leverage points”, for the Seeds to Systems curriculum.
- Research Funding Ecosystem to map and document resources our global research community can refer to as part of training for securing research funding and fostering project sustainability.
These projects will directly inform and shape our other missions, ensuring they address the real-world skills and resources needed to lead and manage sustainable projects. This direct feedback loop demonstrates how Research will reinforce the other missions. We aim to build a more equitable and accessible research ecosystem through training, mentorship, and community building.
Open Incubator
Turning an idea into a project is a significant step, but leading and managing it effectively for long-term impact is another challenge entirely. The OLS’s Open Incubator offers vital expertise and Fiscal Hosting infrastructure, providing community members with expert guidance, financial management, and legal support, especially during the critical early stages of open science projects or building an organisation.
This work began in 2024, and we are actively developing a sustainable, service-based financial model to not only sustain OLS as an organisation but also empower our community by supporting their initiatives.
What’s Next? This mission will become a focus of “Seeds to Systems.” Open Incubator will both guide our community members in identifying resources and directly provide the “system” they need to thrive and sustain their projects.
As the name suggests, OLS fellows and researchers with viable projects will be ideal candidates for Fiscal hosting, providing essential infrastructure for them to flourish. This completes the cycle, with the Incubator then providing real-world examples and data that can inform future Research and Training mission areas.
Community is Always at the Core
As always, the community is at the core of everything we do in OLS. “Seeds to Systems” will carry our commitment to community engagement and collaboration. All our strategic projects – from research and development of new training modules to the evolution of our incubator services – will be co-created and informed by the diverse voices and experiences of our global community. We will actively foster participatory design, exchange feedback, and leverage the expertise of our fellows, mentors, partners, and the wider open science ecosystem to ensure our programs are relevant, inclusive, and truly responsive to the needs of researchers worldwide. This collaborative ethos will continue to drive OLS forward, transforming individual “seeds” into thriving, interconnected “systems” of open research.
Cross-Theme Priorities
All our work will be guided by OLS’s vision, mission and values (the latter revised by the OLS team and Governance Advisory Committee, and currently being reviewed by our community). Our missions will strategically reinforce each other, further strengthened by our overarching priorities:
- Strengthening Partnership Network: Continuing to work with our collaborators to combine efforts and amplify our shared impact in open science.
- Meeting Business Needs: Developing strong policies and processes, enhancing fundraising, and revenue for meeting OLS’s business needs.
- Organisational Sustainability: Ensuring OLS has the resources and resilience to continue its vital work long term.
The “Seeds to Systems” theme will provide strategic direction for our training, mentorship, and community-building initiatives, contributing to building a more equitable and accessible research ecosystem.
We are incredibly excited about this next chapter and look forward to working with you - stay tuned for future updates or directly reach out to the team by emailing team@we-are-ols.org.