Policy in Flanders and Belgium
Regional and national initiatives are working together to make research data open and FAIR. By joining forces, they create a collective strength that goes beyond what they could achieve individually. For FRDN, operating within the Flemish and national context means having partners and resources that contribute to the mission of advancing research accessibility and data fairness. This collaborative approach benefits researchers and society as a whole, making knowledge more accessible and research practices more inclusive.
![photo of a person in a meeting explaining things while gesticulating.](/media/jexp0fry/headway-5qgiuubxkwm-unsplash.jpg?rxy=0.668025078369906,0.48117276548922244&width=305&height=380&quality=70&rnd=133349224930770000)
The Flemish Open Science Board (FOSB)
The Flemish Open Science Board is the strategic steering body of the FRDN responsible for setting out the Flemish strategy on open and/or FAIR data. It constructs the strategic lines for the Flemish Open Science policy. The purpose and composition of the board was regulated in a memo to the Flemish Government on the Flemish Open Science Policy (December 20, 2019).
Flanders Research Information Space (FRIS)
The Flanders Research Information Space (FRIS)-portal is the gateway to discover publicly funded research in Flanders and is accessible to everyone. Thanks to a direct integration with the systems of the scientific institutions, FRIS presents the most recent information about researchers, research groups, publicly funded projects and publications from 2008 onwards.In 2022 the FRIS Research portal has been expanded with additional information about patents, infrastructure and datasets.
CIS-CFS Open Science
The CIS (Committee "Internationale Samenwerking") en the CFS (Committee "Federale samenwerking") are the two permanent committees of the Interministerial Conference on Science Policy (IMCWB). Both commissions provide administrative consultation on matters of interest to the Federal Government and the federated entities, at the international and Belgian level respectively. The CIS-CFS group, which is specifically dedicated to Open Science, is responsible for the promotion, interoperability, overview and reporting of Open Access to scientific research results. Belnet is the mandated member of the EOSC Association.